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The Life and Character 



Stephen Girard 

OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, 
IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

Mariner and Merchant, 

' — WITH — 

AN APPENDIX DESCRIPTIVE OF GIRARD COLLEGE, 



HENRY ATLEE INGRAM, LL. B. 

(SEVENTH EDITION, REVISED.) 



■ 



PHILADELPHIA, PA. ~7 .1 ® 



a- 



4 



Copyright 1896, by HENRY ATLEE INGRAM. 



TO THE 
DESCENDANTS IN AMERICA 

OF 

THIS BIOGRAPHY OF HIS BROTHER STEPHEN IS, WITH 
THEIR PERMISSION, RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 

BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 






PAGE 

Statue and Tomb of Stephen Girard ....... Frontispiece, 

Certificate of Baptism of Stephen Girard , . xvi 

Auxiliary Buildings Numbers One and Two 24 

Auxiliary Buildings Numbers Three and Four 32 

Bric-a-Brac Memorials of Girard 38 

The Little House at Mount Holly 42 

Auxiliary Buildings Numbers Five and Six 50 

Auxiliary Buildings Number Seven 60 

Auxiliary Building Number Eight 7° 

The Bank of Stephen Girard j6 

Auxiliary Building Number Nine 80 

Auxiliary Building Number Ten 90 

West from the Main Building. — College Street View 96 

Campus and College Street Looking East 100 

Pierre Girard's Cross of Saint Louis. (Tailpiece) 107 

The Painting of Stephen Girard, by Otis no 

Stephen Girard's Gig 117 

The Farm at Passyunk 120 

The House in Water Street 123 

« The Table Was Set With Much Solid Silver " 124 

" Infinite Riches in a Little Room " 126 

Joseph Buonaparte's Gift to Girard 128 

Memorial Room — Main Building 134 

The Chapel 141 

Girard College — Main Building 144 

Stephen Girard's Door-Knocker. (Tailpiece) 156 

"Outside the Gates." (Headpiece) 157 

The Library — Main Building . 161 

Inside the Technical Building 164 

The Technical Building 164 

" In Memoriam " — Soldiers' Monument 168 

" No Laggards Here !" — Main Dining Hall 169 

" When Winter Reigns." — The Pond 171 

The Pond and Summer Swimming Pool 174 

" The Pomp and Circumstance of War." — Cadets and Military 

Band 178 

"Ad Honorem Dei" — Interior of Chapel 180 

The "Water Witch" in the Counting- House Railing 193 



PREFACE. 



IN presenting a new biography of Stephen Girard 
the writer has considered that a few words in ex- 
planation of the various reasons prompting his work 
may not be amiss, and as these reasons are best set 
forth through a short consideration of already existing 
memoirs, it is proposed here briefly to refer to the 
latter. 

The first attempt at a biography of Girard closely 
followed his decease in 1831, being the work ot 
Stephen Simpson, 1 a former clerk in Girard's Bank, 
whose probable motives in its conception and produc- 
tion have been elsewhere adverted to in the body of the 
present work. It is sufficient here to say that this 
narrative shows such garbled, perverted, or wantonly 
misstated facts that a mere casual reference to its 
inconsistencies and flat self-contradictions will perhaps 
quite fully justify the re-presentment of the subject 
in a more reasonable light. But its author has gone 
further, and, not hesitating to rely upon himself where 
his investigations failed to supply the desired mate- 
rial, has produced a work whose inaccuracy and 

1 Biography of Stephen Girard. By Stephen Simpson. Philadelphia, 1832. 
Reprint, King & Baird, 607 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, 1867. 

vii 



V JJJ PREFACE. 

patent malice is the more regrettable since it contains 
otherwise sufficient truth to have naturally formed the 
basis of the majority of subsequent sketches. Its 
author has himself confessed that, save for the gener- 
ally known acts of Girard's life, he has chiefly relied 
upon public gossip, 1 although he usually fails to 
mention his authorities, and elsewhere uses liberally 
his position of clerk in the Bank to lend a factitious 
importance to his work as the personal observations 
of one in close daily contact with his subject. The 
present writer is indebted to the oldest living appren- 
tice of Girard for the statement that at no time did 
anything approximating an intimacy exist between 
this clerk and his employer, and that the light esteem 
openly evinced by the latter for his subordinate wholly 
limited their infrequent communications to such mat- 
ters as arose from the affairs of the Bank. 2 It will be 
easily apparent, therefore, owing to the short time 
spent daily by Girard in his Bank, that this clerk's 
opportunities for acquiring accurate information of 
his employer were even more scanty than those of the 
counting-house apprentices, to say nothing of his 
own admission that having upon one occasion had 
the impertinence to question Girard upon his private 
life, he met with a complete rebuff. 3 

1 Preface to Simpson's Biography of Girard, p. 5. 

2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture IV. 

3 See article in American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, Jan. 12th, 1832. 



PREFACE. J x 

"Any one," says Professor Wagner in his first lec- 
ture upon Girard. " who will read this biography of 
Mr. Girard, which I thus publicly pronounce a tissue 
of lies, sticking out on every page, will perceive that 
the whole account is embittered and venomous, and 
that the author has tortured his imagination to find 
an opportunity to falsify and pervert. Now, before 
dilating upon it, let us inquire for a moment who this 
biographer was. When the charter of the old Bank 
of the United States expired and Mr. Girard purchased 
the building, establishing in it his own Bank, he 
appointed George Simpson, the cashier of the former 
institution, to the same position in his new concern, 
Stephen Simpson was the son of this latter, and, with 
Mr. Girard's consent, was appointed by his father to 
the situation of clerk in the Bank, in which position 
he continued until the death of his father. Stephen 
then aspired to the cashiership that his father had 
held, but, unfortunately for him, Joseph Roberts, the 
first teller, stood between him and the coveted office. 
Mr. Girard had confidence in Roberts, but very little 
in Simpson, the result being that the former received 
the appointment, and the latter became thereupon the 
uncompromising enemy of Mr. Girard." 

This feeling of resentment having been reinforced 
by the punishment of a reduction of salary upon the 
occasion of Simpson's assault upon a fellow-book- 



x PREFACE. 

keeper in the Bank, 1 " every invention of fancy and 
perversion of facts has been resorted to by him to 
injure the reputation and tarnish the fame of that 
benevolent man ; — with which statement before you, 
for the truth of which I vouch, can you expect a 
calm or dispassionate narrative from a biographer so 
influenced ? As well might you expect clear water 
from a muddy pool." 2 

But, unfortunately, the keynote struck by the gen- 
eral tenor of Simpson's book has been patiently fol- 
lowed by Girard's subsequent biographers, w T ith one 
notable exception; these writers, most of whom were 
contributors to periodical literature, finding it much 
easier to publish excerpts from that remarkable pro- 
duction than to investigate the subject for themselves. 
From these circumstances, together with the posses- 
sion of documentary evidence, referred to in its place, 
and consisting of baptismal records and sworn testi- 
mony refuting many of that author's statements, the 
present writer regards the works of Simpson and his 
followers as utterly unreliable. And though in the 
present work the former has, nevertheless, been fre- 
quently referred to, and even quoted freely, it will be 
found that the references are wholly to facts likely to 
have come under that author's personal notice, being 
matters of common report, of which his book forms a 

1 Post p. 135. 2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture I. 



PREFACE. X J 

convenient record, or else comprise reluctant admis- 
sions in Girard's favor. These latter have been quoted 
without reserve, in the belief that favorable statements 
by an adverse party form strong evidence in their sub- 
ject's behalf, the present writer especially desiring to 
call attention to the fact that in many cases the pas- 
sages flatly controvert the statements of other por- 
tions of the book itself. 

The notable exception among Girard's biographers 
referred to above is Henry W. Arey, formerly secre- 
tary of Girard College, who, having free access to the 
papers stored at the College, impliedly protests against 
the false inferences drawn by Simpson, and presents 
in his own sketch a fair picture of Girard as he actu- 
ally appeared to his fellows. 1 To this sketch the 
present writer has great pleasure in acknowledging his 
indebtedness ; and though the possession of certain 
documents and evidence not at that biographer's dis- 
posal compels him to differ from several of the lat- 
ter's conclusions, he recognizes everywhere the author's 
endeavor to present his facts with the strictest impar- 
tiality. But, unfortunately, having depended mainly 
upon a journal kept by Girard, commencing in the 
year 1774, 2 this author, like the others, has relied for 
information as to Girard's origin upon common report 



1 Girard College and its Founder. By Henry W. Arey. Phila., i860. 

2 Arey, p. 8. 



X JJ PREFACE. 

or the earlier work of Simpson, and has, consequently, 
committed the same error of ascribing to his subject 
that exceedingly humble parentage which forms one 
of the salient defects of the earlier biographies. 

How such a report can have originated is beyond 
the power of the present writer to explain, but it will 
be seen by the evidence herein presented that it must 
have been the invention of absolute ignorance, if, in- 
deed, the public is not additionally indebted for it to 
Stephen Simpson, among whose other malicious 
stories it first appears. The present writer has, how- 
ever, no desire to enter into controversy with regard 
to this or any other of the statements in the following 
pages, it having been his endeavor in every case to 
convince solely by the presentation of well-attested 
proofs, believing that the surest argument than can 
be advanced is the simple statement of facts he is in 
a position to support. He is aware of the objections 
to be urged against that minute consideration of 
Girard's domestic life which he has permitted himself 
in the second part of the present work ; but while ad- 
mitting that such investigation of petty detail is often 
liable to do injustice to character at large, he has felt 
the necessity of stating openly and accurately the 
intimate facts of a life which has been already grossly 
misrepresented, and finds his chief excuse for so 
doing in the remarkable success with which his sub- 



PREFACE. X JJJ 

ject's character withstands the trying ordeal of such 
scrutiny. 

Conscious of many defects in his presentation of 
the subject, he lays claim to no merit of literary work- 
manship, but is quite willing that whatever value may 
be attached to this biography shall rest entirely upon 
the validity of the various documents already several 
times mentioned, which documents are now for the 
first time at the disposal of a biographer of Girard, 
and which are as follows : 

(i.) A copy of the official record of Girard's 
birth and baptism, certified under their respective 
seals in 1857 by the Mayoralty of Bordeaux and the 
United States Consul at Bordeaux, France, to be used 
as competent evidence in the various suits brought by 
the heirs against his estate. 

(2.) The sworn testimony taken in France under 
a commission from the United States Circuit Court 
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania 1 for the same 
purpose. 

(3.) The lectures upon Girard, delivered by Pro- 
fessor William Wagner, the MSS. of which has been 
placed without reserve at the present writer's service, 
and whose great value arises from the fact that from 
the year 18 10 to the death of Girard, Professor Wagner 

1 See Transcript of the Records of the 17. S. Supreme Court, " Vidal vs* The 
Mayor, etc.," No. 22, Vol. II, page 85 of Transcript and p. 120 of the case. 



X J V PREFACE. 

was in most confidential relations with him, first as 
his favorite apprentice, and afterward acting as his 
agent in all parts of the world. 

(4.) The traditions in the family, comprising 
inter alia the substance of the present writer's many- 
conversations with the three nieces of Girard, daugh- 
ters of his brother Jean, who lived in the Water 
Street mansion from their early childhood to the 
death of Girard, and who were present during the 
whole of the latter's illness, as well as at his death. 
The writer has had access to the MSS. notes left by 
the youngest of these nieces, Henriette Marie Girard- 
Clark (Vve. Lallemand), to which he is greatly in- 
debted for many of the observations upon • Girard's 
domestic life. 

(5.) A " Memorial of Stephen Girard against 
Joseph Baldesqui," in Girard's handwriting. 

(6.) A great number of French letters, written 
to Girard by his father, his two brothers, and his 
sister, covering a period of thirty-one years from 
1772 to 1803, and comprising his intimate corres- 
pondence during the whole period, of which no 
information has heretofore been accessible to any 
biographer. 

The writer, having submitted his completed work 
to Professor Wagner, founder of the " Wagner Free 
Institute of Science," has the pleasure of subjoining 



PREFACE. xv 

the following letter from the only business associate 
of Girard then living: 1 

Hall of the Wagner Free Institute of Science, ) 
Philadelphia, April 26th, 1884. / 
Henry A. Ingram, Esq. : 

My Dear Sir : — I have carefully considered "The 
Life of Stephen Girard, Mariner and Merchant," 
as he was always wont to be called, which you have 
submitted to me for my opinion before publication. 
I may safely say that I fairly consider myself in a 
position to criticise closely any matters relating to 
my old master, the great Girard, owing to my long 
and intimate knowledge of him, extending over a 
period of twenty-one years from the time of my first 
being apprenticed to him to the day of his death. 
I heartily and unhesitatingly approve of the work 
which you have done, and feel delighted that so 
correct a biography is to be presented to the world/ 
I believe it to be strictly correct, so far as the 
facts are concerned, and, what is more, to be the 
first true biography published of my old master, 
which does honor and justice to his true char- 
acter as an earnest, philosophic, and philanthropic 
man. 

I am, my dear sir, yours very truly, 

William Wagner, 

President and Founder of the Wagner Free Institute of Science. 
1 Died at Philadelphia, 17th January, 1885, 



DEPARTEMENT DE LA. 



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Extrait du Registre des acles de<?€&^?£2^ 
de Ian /£/&. 




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CERTIFICATE OF BAPTISM OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



STEPHEN GIRARD. 



M On regardait chez moi par les fentes, et Ton me calomniait; j'ai ouvert portes et 
*enetres, afin qu'on me connut, du moins, tel que je suis." 

— J. J. Rousseau, in Souvestre's Un Philosophe sous les Toits. 



PART I. 



STEPHEN GIRARD, the eldest son and second 
child of Pierre Girard and of Anne Marie 
Lafargue, his wife, was born on the 20th of May, 
1750, in "a three-story brick house in the old 
Philadelphia style" 1 in the Rue Ramonet aux 
.Chartrous, near the City of Bordeaux, France, and 
was baptized in the Roman Catholic faith the 
following day, having for godfather Etienne Foiesse, 
and for godmother Anne Lafargue, the sister of 
his mother. 2 

The house, which was surrounded by quite a plot 
of land, had probably been purchased by Pierre 
Girard about the time of his marriage with Made- 

1 Notes of Henriette Marie Girard-Clark (Vve. Lallemand). 

2 Officially certified copy of baptismal record of Stephen Girard. 

17 



jg LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

moiselle Lafargue, and upon his decease it was 
inherited by Stephen, who in turn devised it to his 
brother, Etienne, and his niece, Victoire Fenelon, in 
equal moieties. 1 It thus became the homestead of 
several generations of Pierre Girard's descendants, 
for the former was not himself a native of Bor- 
deaux, but of the little city of Perigueux, in the 
Dordogne. Many generations of the family had 
resided in this latter city, being widely known 
for their devotion to the sea, upon which they had 
been engaged from time out of mind, either com- 
mercially or in the service of the Royal Navy. It 
was a family well known and heartily respected, of 
considerable wealth — Pierre Girard and his brothers 
having inherited several ships from their father — and 
whose social position had just been additionally well 
established by the conferring upon Pierre Girard of 
the Cross of the Royal and Military Order of Saint 
Louis. 

The circumstances which gave rise to this last 
honorable distinction are so curtly narrated upon the 
official Register of Marriages at Bordeaux on the 
occasion of Pierre Girard's marriage to Mademoiselle 
Lafargue that the present writer feels justified in 
quoting the extract in full. Unfortunately he is 
unable to give the exact date of this latter ceremony, 

1 Will, Article IX. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. T g 

but it probably followed close upon the occurrence 
mentioned below, which took place when Pierre 
Girard was but thirty years old : 

"In 1744. France being at Way with the English , 
Pierre Girard finding himself upon the Squadron at 
Brest, the English sent a Fire Ship into the [inidst of 
the'] Squadron, zvhich set on Fire a Vessel of Line. 

" M. Pierre Girard fired with Zeal for his Country, 
by his Skill and Vigilance succeeded in Extinguishing 
the Fire and Saved the Ship, which the Flames would 
have Destroyed, which Vessel in a few Days was in 
Condition to Rejoin the Squadron. His Majesty, Louis 
XV, having Learned of the Heroic Action which M. 
Pierre Girard had done, Knighted him, and Ordered 
a gold Medal to be Struck, which He gave to Pierre 
Girard as a Badge of Honour, and that his Name 
Should be Placed on the Inscription of the Registers 
of the Admiralty of Paris, to Engrave in the Hearts 
of his Family, the Memory of their Ancestor." l 

It should be added that according to the rules of 
the Order the honor of knighthood could not be 
conferred upon any save a naval or military ojfcer, 2 
showing that Pierre Girard already occupied a posi- 
tion of some distinction, a circumstance which may 

1 " Extrait des Actes de Mariage" depose aux Ecritures de M. Paiotte Notaire, 
Rue St. Remy, Bordeaux, France. 

2 Clark's Concise History of Knighthood, London, 1784, Vol. I, p. 235; Perrot's 
Collection Historique des Ordres de Chevalerie, etc., Paris, 1820. 



20 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

account for the multiplication of rewards mentioned 
in the quoted extract. 

Born of this line of seafaring men, Stephen Girard 
early showed a marked predilection in the same 
direction. But he was kept at home acquiring such 
elementary education as was possible in France one 
hundred and twenty-five years ago, the thoroughness 
of which rudimentary training became apparent in 
his later completion of certain studies unaided. 1 It 
had been his father's hope and intention that all his 
sons should enter a professional life, and it is possible 
that this might have been the result in Stephen's case 
had not an accident during his eighth year summarily 
b-oken off his attention to his studies — an attention 
th consequent long indulgence of his preference for 
open-air life found him very unwilling to renew. 

This accident was the loss of his right eye, the 
result of throwing wet oyster-shells upon a bonfire, 
the heat of which splintering the shells, a fragment 
entered Stephen's right eye, at once destroying the 
sight in it beyond the hope of restoration. The grief 
and pain attending the catastrophe was heightened by 
his playmates' subsequent thoughtless ridicule of his 
altered face, leaving so great an impression upon the 
sensitive young lad's mind that he vividly remem- 
bered it to the day of his death. As a consequence, 

1 Compare Arey, p. 7. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 2 j 

he withdrew almost wholly from their society, occu- 
pying himself with that of his brother Jean [de Mom- 
brun], an early intimacy between the two brothers 
being thus commenced that lasted, with but one inter- 
ruption, during the long period that stretched to the 
death of the younger. This friendship forms the 
brightest thread in the whole fabric of the elder 
brother's life, and was of equal warmth on the part of 
both brothers, a happy result of the patient care with 
which their mother had sought to render her family 
a unit, and one the more worthy of remark when it 
is remembered that to all other persons the elder 
showed an exceedingly undemonstrative disposition. 
His reserve of character was no doubt rendered some- 
what morbid by the comparative isolation to wh :n 
his proud and sensitive temper had relegated him, and 
it is curious to consider the influence such a trivial 
and childish circumstance as his playmates' ridi- 
cule had in the after development of his life. It is 
doubtless to this event may be fundamentally traced 
that distrust of, and semi-contempt for so many of 
his fellows which he later displayed ; and the disposi- 
tion whose most salient feature became its self-reli- 
ance and complete indifference to the cavil or judg- 
ment of his neighbors was primarily dependent for 
its direction in not a small degree upon this very 
circumstance of its original exceeding sensibility. 



2 2 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

Although, as has been said above, Stephen was 
carefully drilled in such elementary studies as are 
commonly pursued by a lad of eight years old, 
there can be no doubt that he was not naturally 
studious, and a sympathy for his misfortune having 
permitted great latitude in his preference for out- 
door life his later studies soon came to occupy by 
far the smallest part of his attention. He possessed 
excellent faculties of observation and a very reten- 
tive memory, supplying in a great measure the 
routine work of the school-room, and there can 
be no doubt that at the time he was not at all 
averse to escape from the uncongenial labor of the 
latter. It is in the injudicious indulgence of this 
preference upon his part that is to be found the 
explanation of the neglect with which upon one 
occasion he reproached his father, the consciousness 
of his loss having led him, in 1813, to write the 
following letter, which a consideration of the fore- 
going remarks will show was decidedly unjust : 
"I have the proud satisfaction to know that my 
conduct, my labor, and my economy have enabled 
me to do one hundred times more for my relatives 
than they all together have done for me since the 
day of my birth. While my brothers were taught 
at college, I was the only one whose education 
was neglected. But the love of labor, which has 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 2 X 

not left me yet, has placed me in the ranks of 
citizens useful to society." l 

In the mere amount of money expended this state- 
ment was probably true. But it is the start in life 
which is most difficult to get, and for this Stephen 
was indebted to his father, notwithstanding the 
rather ungracious manner in which he had recognized 
his relative's subsequent claims upon him. But the 
stress under which this letter was written 2 was suffi- 
cient to excuse it in a great measure, the more so as 
it is the only time he gave vent to his feelings in this 
manner, and the tone of conscious strength in it is 
certainly to be pardoned one who had indeed almost 
literally " made his way alone with means gained 
from his nurse, the Sea." 3 

From his earliest childhood Stephen had been re- 
markable for precocious dignity and grave self-asser- 
tion, and with these masterful traits was coupled a 
passionate and rather domineering temper, which, 
when opposed, was displayed with considerable vio- 
lence. His mother was still earnestly seeking to 
modify this character, so directly opposed to the 
usual careless high spirits of young French children, 
and to teach him the necessary self-control, when 
her death, which occurred while Stephen was yet 

* Arey, pp. 6 and j. 8 The capture of his ship, the " Montesquieu." 

* Arey, p. 7. Letter written in 1789. 



2 m LIFE OF STEPHEN G1RARD. 

quite a young lad, found him with the lesson still un- 
learned. The considerable influence which, as eldest 
son, he doubtless wielded in the immediate family- 
after his mother's death, probably fostered the inde- 
pendence of character already natural to him, and 
his impatience of discipline, speedily reasserting its 
mastery, grew in time to be not only the most fruitful 
source of the unhappiness of his after life, but also 
the proximate cause of his leaving his father's home. 

Not that he was at all unhappy at this period, how- 
ever, for during the few years following his mother's 
decease no untoward event marred the peace of the 
family circle, and probably none would have arisen 
had not Pierre Girard selected a second wife in the 
person of Madame Giraud {nee Lachapelle), an Ameri- 
can or West Indian, who was, unfortunately, already 
the mother of several children. 

There is no evidence to show that Madame Giraud- 
Girard was unkind to or in any particular neglected 
her step-children ; but it was not long before the dis- 
comforts of which a second marriage is so liable to 
prove the fertile source began to make themselves 
disagreeably manifest. Stephen had early found a 
grievance in the fact that the newcomer not only 
supplanted his influence in the family, but was also 
disposed to exercise control of his theretofore com- 
paratively unrestricted liberty ; while his step-mother 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 2 r 

failing to understand the peculiarities of the lad's 
disposition, was unable to allay the distrust with 
which he had immediately regarded her. Stephen 
had always been amenable to kindly argument, being 
one of those natures which must be led and cannot 
be driven, and no especial effort having been made 
to win his regard, his dislike and jealousy increased 
from day to day, until, since he was not at the least 
pains to conceal his sentiments despite his father's 
frequent reproofs, it required but little foresight to 
predict that a speedy climax was inevitable. 

The crisis arrived one day while the family were 
gathered about the dinner-table. Some action of 
Stephen's had called for a reproof from his step- 
mother, and her attempt to correct him proved to be 
the final increment which the lad's overburdened 
temper could not withstand. Restraining his feelings 
no longer, he burst into a torrent of passionate re- 
proach, expressing so plainly the bitterness of his 
spirit that it was impossible for his father, who hap- 
pened to be present, to pass the matter by without 
making of it a signal example. Astounded by 
Stephen's violence, apparently so disproportioned to 
the provocation, and indignant at his temerity, Pierre 
Girard, as soon as he was able to stem the current of 
his son's indignation, rebuked him in the sternest 
manner, commanding him to make immediate present 
2 



2 6 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

amends and submit cheerfully to family discipline in 
the future, or else to find a home for himself as soon 
as he was able elsewhere. 

But the young lad, having once lost his self-control, 
had gone too far to turn back. He was unwilling to 
confess himself an offender where he firmly believed 
himself to be the one aggrieved, and his father's com- 
mand had hardly been finished before Stephen pas- 
sionately replied : " I will leave your house. Give me 
a venture on any ship that sails from Bordeaux, and 'i 
will go at once where you shall never see me again !" 
Persisting in his refusal to make amends, it was 
evident that heroic measures were necessary, both for 
the lad's own sake and for that of the family, whose 
peace was constantly imperiled by his unmanageable 
presence. And while there can be no doubt that 
Pierre Girard felt deep compassion for his motherless \ 
lad when the heat of his indignation had subsided, 
yet it was still apparent something must be done to 
prevent such scenes of domestic insubordination. In 
this dilemma, serious thought was given the idea 
Stephen had himself broached, and the latter remain- 
ing firm in his obstinate attitude, his father found 
himself reluctantly forced to surrender his hope that 
his son might adopt a professional career. He conse- 
quently sought a business acquaintance, Captain Jean 
Courteau, master of the ship Pelerin, who was about 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 27 

to sail for Santo Domingo, one of the French colonies 
in the West Indies, and finding Captain Courteau will- 
ing to take charge of Stephen, a " venture" amounting 
to sixteen thousand livres 1 was furnished the latter by 
his father, who bade his son farewell, as one may 
well imagine, with many regrets that the young lad's 
waywardness had made such a course a necessity. 
This was in 1764, when young Girard was but four- 
teen years of age, and though he was the owner of 
more than three thousand dollars' worth of goods on 

! board, his youth and inexperience forbidding a post 
of more responsibility, he occupied that remarkably 
anomalous one of cabin boy, and part owner, which 
furnished afterward the theme of some of his liveliest 

i expressions of satisfaction. 2 

Probably his father, after having reconciled himself 
to the idea of his son's succeeding him in maritime 

1 ventures, was not unwilling that the latter should 

'[ begin at the very foot of the ladder in his new pur- 
suit. The knowledge he would thus gain of the sea 

! and of the details of a foreign commerce could not 
but prove of the greatest service in any event ; and 
perhaps too he had not wholly surrendered a hope 
that a single voyage would cure this headstrong folly, 
bringing back home, repentant, an obedient lad. But 

I if such had indeed been his hope, he was destined to 

1 Somewhat more than three thousand dollars. 2 Compare Arey, p. 7. 



2 g LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

be greatly disappointed. Girard did, it is true, return 
many times to, Bordeaux, where he visited his old 
home, " Les Chartrous," frequently, being received by 
his brothers and sisters most cordially, and by none 
with greater warmth than by his brother Jean [de 
Mombrun]. But the charm of the sea had fastened 
itself upon the old naval commander's son, and now 
his sole ambition was to perfect himself in navigation, 
which he studied daily with devotion. 

His first voyage lasted ten months, 1 and resulted' 
in such profit, both financially and as regards progress 
in seamanship, that instead of his ardor having 
cooled, he found his gains but added fuel to the 
hereditary passion. Besides, was this a time to ac- 
knowledge he had been wrong, when he had shown 
he could maintain his independence, though so very 
young ? And, flushed with success, he sailed again 
and again, until at the end of his sixth voyage he had 
attained the rank of lieutenant of the vessel. 

Now it was at that time the law of France that 
no person under twenty-five years of age could be 
admitted to the examination preliminary to granting 
a license to command, nor could this be granted 
except to an applicant who had already sailed two 
cruises in the Royal Navy. Girard lacked both 
qualifications, but nevertheless, undaunted by the fact, 

1 Arey, p. 7. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 2 Q 

he determined to apply for the necessary permission, 
and his father's influence being still, happily, powerful 
enough to procure a dispensation, on the 4th of 
October, 1773, there was given "To Stephen Girard, 
of Bordeaux, full authority to act as Captain, Master, 
and Patron of a Merchant Vessel." l 

Thus armed, he sailed from Bordeaux for the last 
time, and during the sixty years of busy life that 
supervened he never saw again the old homestead in 
the Rue Ramonet aux Chartrous, nor, save only his 
brother Jean, did he ever hold again the hand of one 
of his brothers or sisters, or of that father to whom 
he owed his starting-point in life. 

He cleared for St. Marc's, in the island of Santo 
Domingo, on board the ship " La Julie," Captain 
Mouroux commanding, and reaching there in Feb- 
ruary, 1774, sailed thence for New York, at which 
port, the first at which he touched on the Continent 
of North America, 2 he arrived in the following July. 
There he met with a prosperous merchant of that 
city named Thomas Randall, 3 whose notice had been 
attracted by the business tact and shrewdness Girard 
displayed in disposing of the articles which he brought 
with him to New York, and the former taking a great 
fancy to the young man, then in his twenty-fifth 
year, their acquaintance rapidly ripened to intimacy. 

l Compare Arey, p. 8. 2 WilL Art. XX, g 6. 

3 Later jf the firm of Randall, Stewarts & Cox. 



3q LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

Mr. Randall was engaged in trade with New 
Orleans, Port au Prince, and the West Indies gener- 
ally, and not having an entirely responsible master 
for his ship, " L' Aimable Louise," it occurred to him 
that perhaps this alert young Frenchman might be 
the very man he needed. So, as a preliminary experi- 
ment, he offered Girard the position of first officer 
under Captain Malahard, and this being accepted, it 
led to such satisfactory results that at the termination 
of the first voyage he sold Girard a part interest in 
the vessel, and the two joined in freighting and dis- 
patching her under the latter's command for New 
Orleans and the West Indies. 

For two years this quasi-partnership or commu- 
nity of affairs continued, and during its existence 
the war between Great Britain and her American 
Colonies was declared, which immediately put 
American shipping, and particularly that home- 
ward bound from the West Indies, in the greatest 
danger. It was owing to this apparently irrelevant 
circumstance that Girard first conceived the idea of 
visiting the city of his subsequent adoption, and 
the following anecdote shows upon what a trivial 
event the unconscious choice of his future hap- 
pened to turn. In May of 1776 he found himself, 
after many days of fog and storm at sea, fronting 
a large bay, in complete ignorance of his where- 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. ^l 

abouts, and prudence plainly dictating that he should 
anchor. This was accordingly done, while at the 
same time the small cannon carried for emergencies 
was discharged again and again for a pilot, the sound 
creating not a little excitement upon the shore, as 
may be very easily imagined under the circumstances. 
Upon the advent of the pilot it was discovered that I 
the bay was that of the Delaware, and Girard further 
learned that a British fleet was even then cruising 
outside, so that an attempt to put to sea or to make 
the port of New York, for which he was bound, 
would almost inevitably result in capture. Advised 
by the pilot to relinquish his intention of going 
further, he objected that he had no American 
money on board to pay the pilotage up the river, 
which was demanded in advance ; but this difficulty 
being met by the kindly offer of a loan from one 
Captain King, who had come aboard with the pilot to 
discover who had had the temerity to discharge sig- 
nal guns under the very nose of the British, Girard 
accepted his courteous offer and the anchor was 
weighed. He was in the habit of saying, jokingly, in 
after life, alluding to this circumstance, that when he 
first came to Philadelphia he was obliged to borrow 
five dollars to bring him into the city; and it was well 
that he did, for his ship was not yet out of sight of 
the spot where she had been lying before a British 



~ 2 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

man-of-war entered the bay, so that if they had not 
escaped just when they did, in less than an hour 
Girard would have been a British prisoner. 1 

Upon arriving in Philadelphia, he decided that 
the risk of putting to sea again immediately was 
too great, and apparently having made an arrange- 
ment with Mr. Randall, by which he sold his 
interest in " L'Aimable Louise," he took a store 
on Water Street, which he stocked with the rem- 
nants of her West Indian cargo. Before he had 
completed the sale of these articles Admiral Howe 
blockaded the port, in July, 1777, and finding that 
he would be compelled to remain some time in 
that city, he wrote to his friends in Bordeaux that 
a great profit might be expected, on account of 
the high prices which prevailed consequent upon 
the war, should they export clarets and brandies 
to Philadelphia. Having confidence in his judg- 
ment, these friends forwarded him consignments 
in casks, which upon arrival were bottled and sold 
upon his friends' account, although that he did 
not then intend remaining ashore after it should 
become possible for an American ship to safely 
put to sea is evident from the fact that he filled 
the greater part of his store with blocks, cordage, 
and other paraphernalia of shipbuilding, contem- 

1 Compare Simpson, p. 27; Louise Stockton, The Continent, June 20th, 1883, 
V- 773- 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. ^~ 

plating the building of a ship for himself so soon 
as peace should be declared. 

But though these commercial transactions de- 
manded considerable attention, they did not entirely 
monopolize his time, and in the intervals of business 
he found leisure to make acquaintances among his 
fellow-citizens other than merely those of the men 
with whom he transacted his daily affairs, and among 
them was a certain Mr. Lum, residing on Water Street 
above Vine. Mr. Lum was a shipbuilder, 1 widely 
known in Philadelphia as a plain and reputable man, 
with whom it is highly probable that Girard first 
came in contact through his above-mentioned inten- 
tion to construct a vessel, this work demanding the 
advice and service of a competent master builder. 

Visiting Mr. Lum from time to time, Girard soon 
became acquainted with his daughter Mary, a beauti- 
ful brunette of sixteen, who was endowed with charms 
that easily accounted for the admiration he at once 
displayed for her. Her hair was abundant, of a rich 
and glossy black, and to a fair complexion and fine 
figure she joined a modesty as noticeable as her 
beauty was widely celebrated. She was unquestion- 
ably far below her admirer in social station, but all co- 
temporaries agree in admitting that, notwithstanding 
her great personal beauty and comparatively modest 

1 Memoirs and Autobiography of Some of the Wealthy Citizens of Philadelphia. 
Phila., 1846, p. 74. 

2* 



~. LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

position, her character was quite free from frivolity or 
undue levity, and she was, further, of a disposition 
that though quite reserved was yet exceedingly 
amiable. It is true that she had had but few oppor- 
tunities to improve her mind through reading or 
study, but it is equally true that she possessed, never- 
theless, a quick intelligence, and invariably evinced a 
ready appreciation of knowledge in others that went 
far to render her a most agreeable companion. 1 

A curious incidental testimony as to her personal 
worth appears in the letters written to Girard by his 
brother Jean [de Mombrun] preceding and follow- 
ing the latter's acquaintance with her. While the 
earliest of these share the indifference of Girard's 
offended family to the person upon whom he had fixed 
his regard, those that follow Jean's meeting with her 
outvie each other in making amends for the injustice he 
had unintentionally done her. It would seem that 
Girard, anticipating the strenuous objections made by 
his relatives to a match with one so illy fitted to 
advance his material interests, had neglected to notify 
them of his attachment to Mary Lum, or of the 
engagement of marriage which shortly followed their 
acquaintanceship, so that the first intimation of the 
matter that reached his family was the announcement 
of the already accomplished marriage. Even this 

1 Personally vouched for to the writer by Professor William Wagner. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. * ? 

seems to have come to Jean in rather an indirect way, 
for in 1778 he writes: "And now, my dear brother, 
tell me the news with you. They say that you are 
married. I hope so, and that you are sharing the 
pleasures two married people are in condition to enjoy 
when they are really well matched. My intention is 
to do the same, and in the same country, where the 
sex is so charming," 1 after which briefly courteous 
sentences his letters completely ignore the existence 
of his brother's wife for a period of nearly two 
years. 

This significant silence is only once broken by the 
request, in 1780: " Greet your wife for me, a thing I 
shall be able to do myself before the end of the 
year," 2 which promise being carried into effect, either 
in the winter of 1780 or the spring of 1781, the visit 
resulted in a change of sentiment so marked that it 
is impossible to overlook it. 

For, staying at his brother's house and meeting 
Mary Girard daily upon terms of the closest intimacy, 
Jean's opinions underwent a change whose signifi- 
cance cannot be mistaken. In a postscript to a letter 
written to his brother in 1781, somewhat laboriously 
translated into the unfamiliar English tongue, in 
order that its subject might have the pleasure of 
reading it for herself, Jean betrays a warmth of feel- 

1 Letter from Cape Francois, ioth September, 1778. 

2 Letter from Cape Francois, 6th February, 1780. 



36 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



ing which testifies cordially in favor of that character 
and admirable conduct on the part of his brother's 
wife which compelled such a radical change of senti- 
ment. Jean says : " Be so kind as to assure my dear 
sister-in-law of my true affection. I long for embrac- 
ing her and the familly (if she has any). If God 
grants my vows (wishes) I shall one day live with 
you both, and there, wishing for your mutual happi- 
ness, enjoy the pleasure of life/' 1 — a display of 
feeling quite unusual on the part of its writer, and 
one further supplemented by many messages of 
regard and affection in his various subsequent letters. 

In 1783 he writes in English again to Mrs. Girard 
herself, as follows : 

" Dear Sister : — The sole letter I received from 
you (March, 1780) is fallen into my hands very often 
since my arrival from France, where I met with more 
vexations that is hardly to be described. You cannot 
imagine what a satisfaction and pleasure I feel in read- 
ing it, and how much I desire to receive some others, 
till the happy moment of embracing and express you 
my affection with the candour of a real friend and 
brother." 

He is continually sending her remembrances in 
the shape of birds, fruits, plants, tropical preserves, 
and such articles as housekeepers love, coupling 

1 Letter from Bordeaux, 29th December, 1781. 

2 Letter dated " C&>< Francois, the 20th February, 1783." 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. <s~ 

these presents with the expression of his sincerest 
esteem. " I am awaiting the spring in order to 
send some oranges to my sister. Say a thousand 
kind things to her for me and assure her of my 
unalterable friendship." 1 And in 1784 he writes 
the jesting message, " I hope that my dear 
Mary'll look around for a good match," 2 following 
it with, " Many compliments to your wife. I have 
a couple of orange trees and do not know how to 
send them to her." 3 " Thousands and thousands 
of friendly wishes to your dear wife. Say to her 
that if anything from here would give her pleasure, 
to ask me for it. I will do everything in the world 
to prove to her my attachment." 4 "I send for 
my dear sister a box of syrups and some oranges, 
with a pretty parroquet." 5 " I send by Derussy 
the jar which your lovely wife filled for me with 
gherkins, full of an excellent guava jelly for you 
people, besides two orange trees. He has promised 
me to take care of them. I hope he will, and 
embrace, as well as you, my ever dear Mary" 6 the 
italicized phrase being in English. " I send for 
my sister the trunk full of coffee and two ankers 
of brandy as the proceeds of her venture." ! 

1 Letter of 30th December, 1783. 2 " The Cape, 2d March, 1784." 

3 "The Cape, 24th March, 1784/* 

4 '* At the Mole St. Nicolas, 13th June, 1784." 

5 "The Cape, 17th July, 1784." ti "The Cape, 26th July, 1784." 

* " The Cape, 24th October, 1784." 



38 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



" Adieu, dear friend ; I wish you, as well as 
your dear better-half, whom I embrace also, all 
satisfaction in this new year, and am forever your 
friend and affectionate brother." l " If your wife, 
whom I salute, wishes a little parrot, I will send 
her one." 2 " My compliments to my ever dear 
Mary. I am exceedingly sorry that I could not 
find oranges for this time." 3 

But, despite the light cast by these passages upon 
the young girl whom Girard had chosen to be his 
wife, it cannot be denied that it was a very hazardous 
undertaking to link himself permanently with one who, 
notwithstanding her rare physical beauty and many 
admirable qualities, was still incontestably not the 
person he should prudently have chosen. The differ- 
ence in their social status alone was enough to have 
caused him to hesitate long before taking the irrevo- 
cable step — a difference that must have been quite as 
apparent to him as it certainly was to many of his 
neighbors, for it is not to be supposed that his keen 
appreciation of the deficiency in his own early educa- 
tion made him estimate his own position so modestly 
as not to perceive this gap. He was perfectly conver- 
sant with the station of his father's family in France, 
and, indeed, seems to have been so confident of their 
disapproval that he hastened the preparations for the 

1 "The Cape, nth January, 1785." 2 <* The Cape, 29th May, 1785." 

a "The Cape, 18th February, 17,86." 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. ~ 

ceremony in order to anticipate their objections by 
the announcement of the accomplished fact ; and 
this, together with the knowledge of the financial 
success he had already attained, with its foreshadow- 
ing of the greater share of public attention destined 
to follow, forms but another of the many arguments 
showing the unselfishness of the motives leading to 
that selection which has excited comment even to 
the present day. 

One needs not to search far for the actuating 
impulse which compelled this Cophetua-like prostra- 
tion of tangible success and present comfort at the 
feet of a mere hope of future happiness in the girl's 
affections. He was but twenty-six years old, quite 
unused to the companionship of young women ; 
entirely too self-reliant to either ask for or accept 
counsel from strangers in matters relating to his per- 
sonal concerns ; far from his family or from any one 
sufficiently interested in him to point out the danger 
of his contemplated step, and fascinated by the beauty 
and goodness of the young girl upon whom he had 
fixed his regard. And while he was, notwithstand- 
ing, so far alive to the difference between them as to 
determine that the success or failure of his experiment 
should be strictly limited to the person of the young 
girl herself, as is evidenced by his complete ignoring 
of her relatives both then and thereafter, there is no 



. LIFE OF STEPHEN- GIRARD. 

room for doubt that the sole motive which actuated 
him in making his choice was the sincere and unrea- 
soning affection he had conceived for her — an affec- 
tion which, notwithstanding the sadness which 
overshadowed her later years, still happily endured 
unbroken in its constancy to the day of the death 
of its object. 

They were married by the Reverend Mr. Stringer, 
on the 6th of June, 1777, at Saint Paul's Protestant 
Episcopal Church, on Third Street, below Walnut, 
in the city of Philadelphia, 1 and immediately com- 
menced housekeeping at Girard's residence, on Water 
Street, where they remained without event of partic- 
ular importance until late in the following September. 

It was about this time that Girard's brother, Jean 
[de Mombrun], wrote him from Cape Frangois, Santo 
Domingo, saying : " Our dear father in every letter 
he writes asks me for news of you. * ' * * * It 
seems that we are dearer to him since the death of 
Bellevue. He begs me to join him in inducing you 

1 It has been erroneously stated by Henry Simpson, vide The Lives of Emi- 
nent Philadelphians Now Deceased, that the ceremony was performed by 
Dr. Samuel Magaw. This mistake arose from his having merely consulted the 
"Transcript of Records of St. Paul's Church," where the marriage does appear to 
be noted under those celebrated by Dr. Magaw. Had he gone to the original he 
would have seen the apparent error. Consult original " Records of Marriages of 
Saint Paul's Church, from 1759 to 3835," where this marriage is recorded under the 
heading, "The Undermentioned Marriages, by the Rev. Mr. Stringer." These 
original records were transcribed into " Records of Saint Paul's Church, from 1760 
to 1835," by John Claxton, Plunk't F. Glentworth, and Joseph Wright, who were 
appointed by the vestry of Saint Paul's Church to certify to the accuracy of the old 
records and to make a transcript of them, both of which they did on March 3d 
t&rf. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 4I 

to forsake this dangerous commerce, 1 urging us to 
form a partnership with the chief house at Cape 
Frangois, in which he will take part interest in order 
to help us. Should you wish to command a vessel, 
he will provide one for you." 2 

It is interesting to consider what might have been 
the possible result had this offer arrived a little earlier, 
but Girard's marriage having already taken place, he 
declined the generous suggestion, and Lord Howe 
having threatened the city of Philadelphia in Septem- 
ber of 1777, he removed with his wife to Mount 
Holly, New Jersey, where he occupied a two-story- 
and-a-half frame house on a little farm. The farm 
consisted of from five to six acres, which he had pur- 
chased the previous year from Isaac Hazlehurst 3 for 
five hundred dollars, and during more than a year 
he divided his time between farming this place and 
making trips, by way of the Rancocas River, to Phila- 
delphia, where he kept a watchful eye upon his 
property in the hands of the British, and also sold the 
clarets his friends in Bordeaux continued to send him. 
In the enforced leisure of this life he became deeply 
interested in the tremendous struggle for liberty with 
which he was surrounded, and that intense admiration 
for a republican form of government which comes so 

1 By reason of the War of the Revolution. 

2 Letter of Jean [de Mombrun], " The Cape, 27th September, 1777." 

3 Simpson, p. 30. 



42 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

naturally to a native of Bordeaux soon implanted in 
his bosom a hearty belief in the future of the Ameri- 
can Nation, which he displayed on many prominent 
occasions during his later life. Deliberation led him 
to determine to cast in his lot with the struggling 
States, and accordingly in 1778, two years after his 
arrival in Philadelphia, he took the " Oath of Alle- 
giance to the State of Pennsylvania " prescribed by 
the General Assembly, which he repeated in the fol- 
lowing year. The certificate received in return was 
as follows : "I do hereby certify that Stephen Girard, 
of the city of Philadelphia, merchant, harh voluntarily 
taken the Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity as directed 
by an act of the General Assembly, passed the 13th 
day of June, 1777. Witness my hand and seal the 
27th day of October, A. D. 1778. Jno. Ord. (No. 
1678.)" 1 

In 1779 he returned from Mount Holly to Philadel- 
phia, resuming his interrupted business, and building 
the long contemplated vessel, a sloop, which he 
named the " Water Witch." This vessel was built by 
Mr. Lum, and her planning having been the original 
cause of Girard's meeting with his wife, she was 
naturally regarded by him with considerable affection. 
But he went even further than this, and like the great 
Dr. Johnson, who would neither enter nor leave 

1 Famous Americans of Recent Times, by James Parton, Boston, 1867, p. 231. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN Gl'RARD. a? 

a room unless his right foot was foremost, Girard 
adopted a certain superstitious belief to the effect 
that the u Water Witch " could never possibly cause 
him a loss. 

To a great extent she justified his extraordinary 
confidence in her, but her shipwreck shortly after the 
happening of the great misfortune of his domestic 
life, a misfortune that may not inaptly be compared 
to the shipwreck of his personal happiness, was a 
coincidence certainly strange enough to have justified 
his regarding her at the outset as having a subtle 
connection with his prosperity or failure. There is 
no doubt that he was impressed by this accidental 
concurrence, for when, long afterward, he built his 
permanent Philadelphia residence at No. 23 North 
Water Street, he placed a sheet-iron model of the 
" Water Witch " in the rear railing of the two-story 
counting-house, adjoining his four-storied dwelling, 1 
as a tribute to the sole superstition of which he was 
ever known to be guilty. 

His business affairs prospered amazingly, and on 
February 1st, 1780, at the urgent solicitation of 
Joseph Baldesqui, formerly a paymaster in the Legion 
of Count Pulaski, he entered into a partnership to 
prosecute trade to Santo Domingo and the West 
Indies. Baldesqui promised to sail immediately for 

1 Professor William Wagner. 



ma LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

Santo Domingo, from whence he professed to be able 
to obtain the major part of the consignments for the 
benefit of the Philadelphia house, and into this part- 
nership Girard, already worth more than thirty thou- 
sand pounds, put ten thousand, Baldesqui subscribing 
twenty thousand, in ships, uncollected notes, and the 
like. Baldesqui sailed for Cape Francois in February, 
1780, where he remained but a short time, utterly 
failing to redeem his promises, and then left for Bos- 
ton, where he remained until January, 1782, in all 
this interval doing nothing for the benefit of the new 
firm, the whole burden of whose affairs fell upon the 
shoulders of Girard. The latter having in the mean- 
while bought from Edward Stiles, with his private 
funds, the frame dwelling on the east side of Water 
Street, in which he resided, together with three fire- 
proof stores adjoining, Baldesqui insisted, upon his 
return to Philadelphia, in January, 1782, that these 
stores should be considered partnership property. 
This action on Baldesqui's part, coupled with his 
refusal to pay the firm the usual commission for the 
transaction of certain of his private affairs during his 
absence, together with the manifestly unequal division 
of labor and profit between the partners, led to the 
dissolution of the firm in February, 1782, and the 
questions in dispute being referred to arbitrators, an 
award was made in Girard's favor. The clear and 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. ^r 

able statement and the masterly arguments advanced 
by Girard in his own behalf, were no doubt largely 
instrumental in influencing the arbitrators in arriving 
at this decision, the above little-known episode of 
his business life being almost literally extracted from 
a copy of the " Memorial against Joseph Baldesqui," 
in his own handwriting. 1 

After the dissolution Girard continued the business 
on his own account, and prospered so greatly that in 
1784 he found it necessary to construct a second 
vessel, 2 which, out of compliment to his brother Jean 
[de Mombrun], he named the " Two Brothers." But, 
despite his prosperity and fancied security, the 
disaster hinted at above as impending over his 
household was soon to fall upon it, and, after eight 
years of happy married life, in May, 1785, his wife 
began to show unmistakable signs of the frightful 
disorder of insanity. On the 1 2th of that month 
Girard wrote the terrible news to his brother, 
Jean, at Cape Frangois, and received in reply a letter 
couched in language of the most fervent sym ... 
pathy. Jean writes : " I have safely received your 
letter of the I2th of May last. It is impossible 
to express to you what I felt at such news. I 
do truly pity the frightful state I imagine you 
to be in, above all, knowing the regard and love 

1 Memoire de Ste. Girard, etc., Centre le Sieur Joseph Baldesqui. 

* Compare Arey, p. n, where it is incorrectly said to have been his first vessel. 



.Q LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

you bear your wife," and, after saying that nothing 
but the pending dissolution of his own partner- 
ship, which required his constant presence, prevented 
him from going at once to console Girard, he 
adds : " But, above all, conquer your grief and 
show yourself by that worthy of being a man, 
for, dear friend, when one has nothing with which 
to reproach one's self, no blow, whatsoever it may 
be, should crush him. I presume that the grief 
which this lovely woman has always shown to me 
at having no children is the cause of her misfortune, 
to which it is necessary to be resigned as to the 
will of God. * * * Adieu ! I exhort you to 
firmness and courage, without forgetting to care 
for your own health so far as possible. I am your 
affectionate brother and friend." * 

The affliction of Mrs. Girard, however, was rather 
of a melancholy than violent character, and she was 
kept at home, the restoration of her wavering mind 
being sought by means of quiet coupled with medical 
treatment, whose beneficial effects became almost 
immediately apparent. Upon the receipt of his 
brother's letter Girard had written suggesting 
various methods of treatment, among them the 
possible advantages of a change of climate and scene, 
to which Jean replies : " The last of your letters 

1 Letter from the Cape, 30th June, 1785. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. aj 

announces your wife's projected voyage by the brig. 
If you should happen to determine upon it, without 
regarding the trouble she may cause me, I shall 
not be sorry to have her here ; the less so since 
my care, etc., may cure her, being singularly 
attached to her. Although, on the other hand, 
should the voyage not prove salutary to her it 
will cause me a great deal of chagrin," * a letter 
speaking volumes for the sincerity of Jean's earlier 
professions of regard, though he had no opportunity 
of putting these kindly offers to the proof, owing to 
the idea of the projected voyage being finally given 
up. During the whole of this painful period Girard 
watched over his wife's comfort with the most 
affectionate assiduity, and at last, though still subject 
to periods of depression, he was able to write to 
Jean in such manner as to call forth the reply : 
" Be sure to give my love to your wife. I am 
overjoyed that she is getting better," 2 followed 
two weeks later with, " I learn with joy of the 
restoration of your w T ife. Give her a thousand kisses 
for me, and believe me your affectionate friend and 
brother." 3 

Confident of her eventual re-establishment, there- 
fore, Girard returned to business with the ardor of one 

1 Letter, Cape Francois, 29th July, 1785. 

2 Letter, Cape Frangois, 28th August, 1785. 

3 Letter, Cape Francois, 8th September, 1785. 






48 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

who has successfully passed a great ordeal, and began 
to consider seriously a proposition of copartnership 
which Jean had first formally broached in his letter of 
26th July, 1784. Girard had at the time returned a 
favorable reply, and now, in October of 1786, he ac- 
cepted the terms proposed by Jean, the agreement 
being substantially as follows. (1.) The Santo Do- 
mingo house was to be at Cape Francois. (2.) The 
partnership was to relate back to and commence on 
May 1st, 1786, to continue for five years, reserving 
to each partner the privilege of compelling a dissolu- 
tion at the end of three years, should domestic or 
other differences cause disagreement between them. 
(3.) The whole capital of both partners was to be 
subscribed to the firm, including all furniture, lands, 
and houses whatsoever, amounting altogether, as 
Jean says, to about three hundred and odd thousand 
livres. All rents from Stephen's real estate were to 
form part of the firm assets, as was also the half 
rent of Jean's magnificent coffee plantation of Doidy, 
farmed on shares, which was at that time paying ten 
thousand livres a year net. (4.) The Philadelphia 
house was to be styled Sn. & Jn. Girard freres, and 
was to be managed by Stephen solely, unless Jean 
were in Philadelphia, all office or household expenses 
of both partners (except clothing), including all costs 
of voyages or trade, to be divided equally between 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 40 

them. (5.) Jean having meanwhile, May 1st, 1786, 
entered into a partnership at Cape Francois, with 
Messrs. Bonnardel & Lacrampe, it was agreed that 
his contribution to the Philadelphia firm should con- 
sist partly of thirty-six thousand livres yet remaining 
in his hands (to be forwarded at once to Stephen and 
added to a sum then standing to his credit on Ste- 
phen's books), and partly of his entire interest in the 
firm of Girard, Bonnardel & Lacrampe. This latter 
interest was always to remain to the account of the 
Philadelphia firm, whether it resulted in profit or loss, 
and whether Jean's Cape firm should be renewed dur- 
ing the continuance of his partnership with Stephen, 
or whether it should be dissolved, and he should 
form a new association with others. In case he dis- 
solved and did not form a new firm, Jean was to main- 
tain aione a branch house at Cape Frangois under the 
firm style of Jn. & Sn. Girard freres, or else was to 
send all his money and goods to the Philadelphia 
house and go to that city himself, in order that either 
he or Stephen should be free to voyage for the firm. 
Certain powers of attorney were also exacted by Jean, 
and everything was to be shared between them equally, 
Jean's letter concluding: " There must be good faith, 
openness, and perfect accord, and in case of my death, 
or of yours, the partnership must end six months after 
the event, for I do not wish to have any business 



S LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

with an heir, unless, I mean, the two members of the 
firm agree beforehand as to the survivor." 1 

The partnership with Messrs. Bonnardel & La- 
crampe was not renewed, but, on May ist, 1787, Jean 
formed a new house at Cape Francis under the title 
of J. Girard & Lacrampe, his share of the profits or 
losses in which came into the Philadelphia firm under 
the clause of the partnership .agreement mentioned 
above. He remained in charge of this new house 
until it was firmly established in business, when, in 
August, 1787, he sailed, to take charge of the Phila- 
delphia house, on board a vessel he had just pur- 
chased and named " Les Deux Amis." He had pre- 
viously stipulated, however, that Stephen should not 
at once leave the reins of their affairs in his hands 
without a most competent assistant, not, as he says, 
" that I do not feel myself capable of managing them, 
but because, not being acquainted, a stranger may ap- 
pear to me to be good who is bad, and one who may 
appear bad may be good, which uncertainty will put 
me in a perplexity prejudicial to our interests." He 
also wrote that he would not occupy Stephen's house, 
taking charge of his wife, but upon learning that 
Stephen contemplated her remaining in the country 
during his absence, Jean consented to occupy the 
mansion. Accordingly, he arrived with his wife and 

1 Letter, "The Cape, 26th July, 1784." 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 5 r 

family in September, 1787, with a large cargo of 
claret, and in October of the same year Stephen 
sailed in turn for Charleston and the Mediterranean, 
being absent until July, 1788. 

The partnership continued with great mutual profit 
until May 1st, 1789, after which, at Stephen's sug- 
gestion, it was terminated under a clause of the 
partnership articles, both brothers feeling that they 
were not in sufficient accord commercially to warrant 
its continuance. As provided by the articles, an ar- 
bitrator and appraiser was called in, in the person 
of Hugh Calhoun, who performed his task to the 
avowed satisfaction of both parties, awarding to Jean, 
it is said, sixty thousand dollars, and to Stephen 
thirty thousand. 1 

Jean returned in Dec, 1788, to Cape Francois with 
his family, and to Girard's ineffable satisfaction the 
former quiet and contented routine of his household 
was re-assumed by his wife, whose country sojourn, 
so far as it was possible for any one to tell, had 
resulted in her complete and perfect restoration to 
health. But in believing, as he did, that his domestic 
happiness was at last undoubtedly assured, he was 
destined to an awakening even more cruel and pain- 
ful in the result than the first discovery of her terrible 
affliction. He had begun to make arrangements for 

1 Simpson, p. 35. These amounts are probably not accurate. 



52 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



the gratification of her long-felt wish to visit France 
immediately upon her return to the.r house in Water 
Street, and he was in the midst of the necessary 
preparations to accompany her, when, to his unspeak- 
able grief, the same signs of despondency over her 
childless condition which preceded the first weakening 
of her mind once more became apparent. A consul- 
tation of eminent physicians was called, who were 
unanimous in the belief that the sole hope for the 
restoration of her sanity lay in her immediate removal 
to a hospital, and Girard found himself at last forced 
to give his reluctant consent to this measure, which 
was at once carried into effect. The only hospital 
in Philadelphia at that time which received such 
patients was the Pennsylvania Hospital, at Eighth 
and Spruce Streets, and she was accordingly admitted 
to that institution on the 31st of August, 1790, 1 
where she remained, uncured, until her death. 

She was pleasantly situated on the first floor of 
the main building 2 in a spacious and comfortable 
apartment, with. parlor attached, 3 and was permitted 
the freedom of the large grounds of the Hospital, 
being also allowed to receive visitors with the fewest 
restrictions possible. She is remembered by one 

1 William G. Malin, ex-steward Pennsylvania Hospital. See also Philadelphia 
Sunday Dispatch, 16th June, 1878, by same authority. 

2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture I. Also see Philadelphia Sunday Dispatch, 
June 2d, 1878; article by William G. Malin, ex-steward Pennsylvania Hospital. 

• Professor William Wagner, Lecture I. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j- ~ 

who visited her frequently as " a dark-haired woman, 
always sitting in the sunlight, still bearing strong 
marks of the beauty for which she was celebrated 
in early life," l although her mind was then almost 
wholly a blank, scarcely even recognizing the old 
housekeeper, who would sometimes take Girard's 
little nieces, Jean's daughters, to see her. 2 

It might be supposed that with this last affliction 
Girard had sounded a depth of domestic misfortune 
to which nothing could be superadded, but he was 
doomed to experience a still sharper pang when, 
on March 3d, 1791, his wife gave birth to a daughter. 
The child was immediately baptized, in the presence 
of Doctors Cutbush and Warner, with the name 
" Mary Girard," and was at once sent to be nursed 
in the country, where, notwithstanding the watchful 
care of Mrs. John Hatcher, it lived but a few months 
and was buried in the graveyard of the parish 
church. 3 

Then, at length, childless and worse than wifeless, 
the misfortunes that had so unrelentingly pursued the 
married life of Girard were exhausted, and he found 
himself once more freed from harassing care in his 
household, though, alas, in what a manner ! In view 

1 Professor William Wagner's Lectures on Girard, Lecture I. Professor Wagner, 
while apprenticed to Girard, was usually commissioned to pay Mrs. Girard's board. 

2 Louise Stockton, The Continent for June 20th, 1883. 
•William G. Malin, ex-steward Pennsylvania Hospital. 



54 



STEPHEN G7RARD. 



of the sincerity of his love for his wife, her absence 
must have been a relief largely tempered, particu- 
larly at the very outset, by the keenest sense of 
loneliness, and he took up his daily life again with 
a desperate patience that was almost pathetic. 
His state of mind is well expressed in a letter 
written in 1804, long afterward, to his friend, 
Duplessis, in New Orleans, 1 in which, speaking 
of the routine of existence into which he first fell 
at this epoch, he says : " As to myself, I live like 
a galley slave, * * * * often passing the whole 
night without sleeping. I am * * * * worn out 
with care. I do not value fortune. The love of 
labor is my highest ambition." 

But he was too well-balanced a man to permit 
himself to vaguely repine, for he very well knew that 
the only remedy for such pain as his was to 
be found in constant occupation, and, therefore, 
he sought to keep his mind unceasingly busy during 
his hours of wakefulness. He plunged with ardor 
into the details of the construction of several ships 
he was building for himself, and it was with much 
pride that he saw launched, in 179 1 and 1792, those 
splendid merchantmen so long the delight of Phila- 
delphia and the envy of other East India traders. 
They were six in number, named, in the order of 

1 Arey, p. 5. Also quoted by Parton, p. 239. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GTRARD. 



55 



their building, " Voltaire," " Helvetius," " Good 
Friends," " Montesquieu," " Rousseau," and " North 
America," and together with the " Superb," a seventh 
vessel, which he took for debt,' 1 and the " Kensing- 
ton," they formed the most noteworthy part of the 
fleet with which he built up his magnificent 
monument of commercial success. He had owned, 
in addition, at various times, the sloop " Water 
Witch," the brigs "Kitty," "Liberty," "Polly," 
and " Sally," and the schooner " Nancy ;" but these 
were chiefly engaged in the coastwise trade, occa- 
sionally venturing to European ports, and were 
quite insignificant when compared with the beau- 
tiful ships launched during these two yean* to 
trade with Canton, Calcutta, and the East. These 
were equipped with all the latest improvements in 
shipbuilding, and had such superior facilities for 
getting up anchor and pumping by machinery that 
they were always more lightly manned than any 
others of like tonnage leaving port. Curious to 
relate, they were never insured, there being few, 
if any, marine insurance companies in those days, 
and Girard's confidence in the then boards of 
underwriters being so scant that he preferred to 
insure his own vessels and houses, 2 

For this fleet he planned cruises extending over 

1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture IV. 

2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture JV. 



c^5 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

long periods of time, and embracing ports in all 
quarters of the known globe. For instance, a ship 
would sail with a cargo of cotton and grain for Bor- 
deaux, where it would reload with fruit and wine for 
Saint Petersburg, and there discharge this cargo, 
replacing it with hemp and iron. In turn these would 
be sold mi Amsterdam for specie, laden with which 
the ship would sail for Calcutta and Canton, where 
tea, silks, and East India goods would be bought for 
the return voyage to Philadelphia. During many 
years the system thus inaugurated was success- 
fully carried out, bringing great wealth to its projec- 
tor and much incidental benefit to his adopted city, 1 
and it found hosts of imitators who availed themselves 
of it with more or less advantage until the commerce 
of America was overthrown by the War of 1812. 

The year 1793 witnessed the horrible uprising of 
slaves in the island of Santo Domingo, and many 
foreign merchants narrowly escaped sharing in the 
general massacre by taking refuge on one of Girard's 
vessels, commanded by Captain Cochran, then in port 
at Cape Frangois. Some of these refugees barely 
escaped with the clothing upon their persons, but 
others, more successful, saved large quantities of 
wearing apparel, household furniture, and silver, with 
which the vessel set sail for Philadelphia, where she 

l Parton, p. 235. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. ~j 

arrived safely, loaded with the valuables. It has been 
said that Girard's fortune was largely increased by 
the subsequent failure of owners to claim many of 
these articles, but of this no reliable evidence has 
ever been adduced, while both Captain Cochran and 
Mr. Roberjot, one of the refugee merchants who 
succeeded in saving nothing but a valise of valuable 
papers, vouched personally that all articles for whom 
owners could be found had been returned. 1 Indeed, 
Girard's books show large quantities of goods in 
Cape Francois owned by him individually at the time, 
on which he doubtless sustained heavy loss, not 
a little augmented by the ruin of the majority of the 
merchants of the island, a number of whom were 
very heavily in his debt. 

Girard was now forty-three years old, but notwith- 
standing that during the seven years of his residence 
in Philadelphia he had identified himself with the 
largest commercial interests of that city, the opening 
of the year 1793 found him personally but little 
more known or understood by his neighbors than 
had he been the veriest stranger. The Saxon heir- 
loom of distrust for all persons of foreign birth was 
still dominant in the recently separated English 
colonies, and, notwithstanding the close alliance of 
the newly formed States with the French nation, the 

1 To Professor William Wagner, Lecture I. 

3* 



58 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



proverbial provincialism of Philadelphians led them 
to regard their French fellow-citizen with a curiosity 
largely tempered by uncertainty. It is the common 
fault of a narrow mind, whether in an individual or 
in a community, to fortify its lack of information 
with a vigilant suspicion, and in the absence of defi- 
nite knowledge many fanciful tales as to Girard's 
origin and personal habits were hazarded by such as 
were willing their neighbors should believe them 
better informed than themselves. The impenetrable 
reserve of their subject, who made it a point never to 
deny such of these as reached his ears, together with 
the personal dignity which would not suffer the 
impertinence of being questioned upon private mat- 
ters, no doubt lent an air of probability to some of 
these stories, many of which, in the absence of denial, 
were boldly asserted as facts, and grew in time to 
be generally believed. But an occasion was about to 
arise which was to strip off a part of this reserve and 
afford his fellow-citizens an opportunity to gain an 
insight into the character of the inner man, whom 
they had so long profoundly misjudged, for in the 
late'summer of this year the deadly malady of yellow 
fever broke out within one square of Girard's resi- 
dence on Water Street, 1 and gaining a foothold in 
their midst, spread with such fierce rapidity that the 

1 Per Read, J., in Soohan vs. Philadelphia, reported in i Grant's Cases 505, 
and also in 9 Casey 29. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. eg 

consternation of the people was carried beyond all 
bounds. Dismay and affright were visible in almost 
every person's countenance. Most of those who 
could by any means make it convenient fled" from 
the city. Of those who remained, many shut them- 
selves up in their houses, being afraid to walk the 
streets. Some of the churches were almost deserted, 
and others wholly closed. The Coffee House was 
shut up, as was the City Library and most of the 
public offices. Three out of four of the daily papers 
were discontinued. The corpses of the most respect- 
able citizens, even of those who had not died of the 
epidemic, were carried to the grave on the shafts of a 
" chair " [chaise], the horse driven by a negro, unat- 
tended by a friend or relation, and without any sort: 
of ceremony. Many never walked in the footpath, 
but went in the middle of the street to avoid being 
infected in passing houses wherein people had died. 
Acquaintances and friends avoided each other in the 
streets and only signified their regard by a cold nod. 
The old custom of shaking hands fell into such 
disuse that many shrunk back with affright at even 
the offer of a hand. 1 The death calls echoed through 
the silent, grass-grown streets j and at night the 
watcher would hear at his neighbor's door the cry, 
u Bring out your dead !" And the dead were brought 

* An Account of the Malignant Fever, 1794. By Matthew Carey. Chap. IV, 
pp. 21, 22. 



5q LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

Unwept over, unprayed for, they were wrapped in the 
sheet in which they died, and were hurried into a box 
and thrown into a great pit, the rich and the poor 
together. 1 It is not probable that London, at the last 
stage of the plague, exhibited stronger marks of 
terror than were to be seen in Philadelphia from the 
25th of August until late in September. Who, 
without horror, can reflect on a husband, married, 
perhaps, for twenty years, deserting his wife in the 
last agony ? a wife unfeelingly abandoning her hus- 
band on his deathbed ? parents forsaking their chil- 
dren ? children ungratefully flying from their parents 
and resigning them to chance ? masters hurrying off 
their servants to Bush Hill (Hospital), even on sus- 
picion of the fever, and that at a time when, almost 
like Tartarus, it was open to every visitant, but rarely 
returned any? And such was the force of habit that 
those guilty of this cruelty felt no remorse themselves, 
nor met with censure from their fellow-citizens. 2 

In the midst of this terrific pestilence an anony- 
mous call appeared on the 10th of September in the 
Federal Gazette, the only paper still published, stating 
that all but three of the Visitors of the Poor had 
either fled or succumbed to the disease, 3 and calling 
upon all who were willing to help to meet on the 

1 Louise Stockton, p. 776, The Continent, for June 20th, 1883. 

%An Account of the Malignant Fever, ante. 

3 An Account of the Malignant Fever, ante ch. V, pp. 28, 29. Also, Arey, 




'^r 



IfSp 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. g r 

1 2th of the month, at the City Hall, 1 for the purpose 
of devising some measures for the general relief. 
A second meeting was held two days later, and 
from those who attended a committee of twenty- 
seven, ultimately dwindling to twelve, was appointed, 
of whom Girard was one. This Committee met on 
the following day, Sunday, September 15th, and the 
physicians in charge laid the condition of the great 
Hospital at Bush Hill before them. 

This was reported as being without order or 
regulation, far from clean, and in immediate want of 
a qualified superintendent and attendants, which self- 
devotion money could not purchase, for the entrance 
to that pest house was deemed a passage to the 
grave. 2 Upon the announcement of these facts a 
silence fell upon the Committee, when suddenly 
two men rising in their midst offered themselves, the 
forlorn hope of the dead and dying. On the Com- 
mittee's minutes, under the date of September 15th, 
is found the following entry : " Stephen Girard and 
Peter Helm, members of the Committee, commiser- 
ating the calamitous state to which the sick may 
probably be reduced for want of suitable persons 
to superintend the Hospital, voluntarily offered their 
services for that benevolent employment. ,, 3 The 

1 Partem, p. 233. 2 Arey, p. 12. 

3 Minutes of the Proceedings of the Committee Appointed, etc., to Attend to and 
Alleviate the Sufferings of the Afflicted with the Yellow Fever % 1794, p. n. 



5 2 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

surprise and satisfaction excited by this extraordinary 
effort of humanity can be better conceived than 
expressed. Their offers were accepted, and the 
same afternoon they entered on the execution of their 
dangerous and praiseworthy office, the management 
of the interior department being assumed by Girard 
and of the exterior by Peter Helm. 1 

" To estimate properly the value of this act of self- 
devotion one must call to mind that Girard was 
then in the zenith of his life, already a man of wealth 
and influence, with the prospect before him of a long 
career of happiness, usefulness, and riches. A 
foreigner and without immediate family, it could not 
be expected that any strong bonds of sympathy 
existed between him and the people of that pestilence 
stricken city. Before him stood probable death in its 
most repulsive form ; certain and heavy losses 
were to be entailed in the neglect of his private 
interests ; the most loathsome and the most menial 
duties were to be performed in person ; and the 
possible reward of all this was a nameless grave 
upon the heights of Bush Hill." 2 

His persevering and decisive character was im- 
mediately felt in everything pertaining to the Hos- 
pital. Order soon reigned where all before was 
confusion ; cleanliness took the place of filth ; 

1 An Account of the Malignant Fever ^ante^ ch. VT, p. 31. * Ar*v, p. 13. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN G1RARD. 5^ 

attendants and medicines were at hand ; supplies and 
accommodations were provided, and on the very next 
day he reported the institution as read}/ 10 afford 
every assistance. 1 The following interesting extract 
from a letter written by him at this time to his friend, 
Samatan, in Marseilles, describes vividly the con- 
dition of things in this unfortunate city : " The 
mortality is so great and the fear so general 
that it is no longer possible to find nurses for the 
sick or men to bury the dead. In fine, we are in 
a most deplorable situation. Those of our people 
who have escaped the disease have fled from 
their homes, almost all the houses are closed, 
and Philadelphians are not received into the neigh- 
boring villages without undergoing quarantine. 
The few who have had the courage to remain 
have established a Hospital at a little distance 
from the city for the reception of the unfor- 
tunate. I am the active director, which causes 
me much anxiety. I do not know when the disease 
will cease. I am about leaving this moment for 
the Hospital, where the great number of the sick, 
who # are constantly arriving, requires my constant 
presence." 

" For sixty days he continued to discharge his 
duties at the Hospital, and up to the 9th of March 

1 Minutes of the Proceedings of the Committee, etc., ante, pp. 12 and 14. 



6 4 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

following, when the Committee concluded its labors 
and ceased to exist, his name is found upon the 
records as a faithful attendant at its meetings. And 
these noble men did not confine themselves to mere 
efforts to stay the disease. They raised upon their 
individual credit the necessary funds, until public 
contributions could reimburse them ; they supplied 
the poor with money, provisions, and firewood ; they 
furnished burial for the dead ; they received under 
their care one hundred and ninety-two orphan chil- 
dren (many of them infants), whose natural protec- 
tors had perished of the fever ; they cleansed and 
purified all infected places, and they ceased their 
labors only when they had taken precautions against 
a similar calamity in future, by procuring better sani- 
tary regulations, and a permanent hospital for such 
diseases." 1 

The deadly nature of the sickness may be inferred 
from the fact that from the 1st of August until the 
9th of November four thousand and thirty-one inter- 
ments took place in Philadelphia alone, from a popu- 
lation of not quite twenty-five thousand who remained 
during the plague. 2 But, notwithstanding the danger, 
Girard remained six, seven, or eight hours daily in 
the Hospital, leaving only to visit the infected districts 
and assist in removing the sick from the houses in 

*Arey, p. 14. 2 Arey, p. 14. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRAKD. 5c 

which they were dying without help. He had tc 
encourage and comfort the sick, to hand them neces- 
saries and medicines, to wipe the sweat from their 
Srows, and to perform many disgusting offices of 
Kindness which nothing could render tolerable but 
the exalted motives that impelled him to this heroic 
conduct. 1 

One well-attested scene of the kind, witnessed by 
a merchant who was hurrying past with camphor- 
saturated handkerchief pressed to his mouth, gives a 
vivid glimpse of Girard engaged in his heroic mission : 
" A carriage, rapidly driven by a black servant, broke 
the silence of the deserted and grass-grown street. 
It stopped before a frame house in ' Farmer's Row/ 
the very hotbed of the pestilence, and the driver, first 
having bound a handkerchief over his mouth, opened 
the door of the carriage and quickly remounted to 
the box. A short, thick-set man stepped from the 
coach and entered the house. In a minute or two 
the observer, who stood at a safe distance watching 
the proceedings, heard a shuffling noise in the entry, 
and soon saw the visitor emerge, supporting with 
extreme difficulty a tall, gaunt, yellow-visaged victim 
of the pestilence. His arm was around the waist 
oi the sick man, whose yellow face rested against his 
own, his long, damp, tangled hair mingling with bis 

1 An Account of the Malignant Fever, ante, ch. VI, p. 35. 



56 LIFE OF STEPHEN GJRARD. 

benefactor's, his feet dragging helpless upon the pave* 
ment. Thus, partly dragging, partly lifted, he was 
drawn to the carriage door, the driver averting his 
face from the spectacle, far from offering to assist. 
After a long and severe exertion the well man suc- 
ceeded in getting the fever-stricken patient into the 
vehicle, and then entering it himself, the door was 
closed and the carriage drove away to the Hospital, 
the merchant having recognized in the man who 
thus risked his life for another the foreigner, Stephen 
Girard !" * 

The feelings which actuated Girard and the modest 
estimate which he placed upon these services may 
be best inferred from the following extracts from the 
very few and brief letters which he appears to have 
written during the continuance of the disease: " The 
deplorable situation to which fright and sickness have 
reduced the inhabitants of our city demands succor 
from those who do not fear death, or who, at least, do 
not see any risk in the epidemic which prevails here. 
This will occupy me for some time, and if I have the 
misfortune to succumb, I will at least have the satis- 
faction of having performed a duty which we all owe 
to each other." 2 " You will receive my thanks for 
your high opinion respecting my occupation in the 
calamity which has lately afflicted my fellow-citizens. 

1 The United States Gazette of January 13th, 1832. 
* Letter to Les Fils de P. Changeraux & Co., Baltimore, September i6th y j ^93. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. fa 

Jn that occasion I only regret that my strength and 
ability have not fully seconded my good will." 1 

Twice afterward, in 1797 and 1798, Philadelphia 
was visited by yellow fever, and on both occasions 
Girard again took the lead in relieving the poor and 
the sick by personal exertion and by gifts of money. 2 
He had a singular talent for nursing the sick, although 
a sturdy unbeliever in medicine, and in January, 
1799, 3 he wrote to a friend in France: " During 
all this frightful time I have constantly remained in 
the city, and without neglecting my public duties 
I have played a part which will make you smile. 
Would you believe it, my friend, that T have visited 
as many as fifteen sick people in one day ? And 
what will surprise you still more, I have lost only one 
patient, an Irishman, who would drink a little. I do 
not flatter myself that I have cured one single person, 
but you will think with me that in my quality of 
Philadelphia physician I have been very moderate, 
and that not one of my confreres has killed fewer 
than myself." 4 

And so the brave man, who. though but a new- 
comer among the Philadelphia's, yet stood to the 

1 Letter to John Ferris, New York, November 4th, 1793. 

2 Parton, p. 235. See A Short History of the Yellow Fever in Jzily, 1797, pp. 
28 and 33. 

3 Arey, p. 2. 

4 Letter to Deveze, one of the physicians of the Bush Hill Hospital, appointed a* 
the suggestion of Girard in 1793. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



post of public danger when those bound to remain 
by closest ties of blood and duty were fleeing, un- 
censured by their fellows, having finished the task no 
other dared confront, quietly withdrew to his own 
house, and the panic-stricken multitudes, recovering 
from their fear, returned to their deserted homes. 
And what was the reward that such services merited 
and obtained from the citizens of Philadelphia? " At 
a meeting of the Northern Liberties and District of 
Southwark, assembled on Saturday, the 22d day 
of March, 1794, presided over by Thomas McKean, a 
signer of the Declaration of Independence, and then 
Chief Justice and afterward Governor of the State, 
' their most cordial, grateful, and fraternal thanks ' 
were presented to those fellow-citizens named in 
the proceedings, ' for their benevolent and patriotic 
exertions in relieving the miseries of suffering human- 
ity on the late occasion.' One of the citizens thus 
gratefully remembered was Stephen Girard, ' under 
whose meritorious exertions and peculiar care at the 
Bush Hill Hospital, in conjunction with Peter Helm, 
every possible comfort was provided for the sick, and 
decent burial for those whom their efforts could not 
preserve from the ravages of the prevailing dis- 
temper.' " l 

But this resolution of thanks, once passed, neatly 

1 Per Read, J., in Soohan vs. Philadelphia. Reported in i Grant's Cases 505, an^ 
in 9 Casey 20. See Testimonial at Girard College. 






LIFE OF STEPHEN CIRARl), g Q 

framed, and delivered, the city of Philadelphia con- 
sidered its duty in the premises wholly done. No 
friendly feeling toward the man, freshly returning, 
pale, thin, and worn, from the house of pestilence and 
death, prompted her citizens to publicly speak a 
kindly word for that self-devoted heroism that had 
just finished the task they dared not undertake. Nor 
was there afterward found in all her limits one man 
courageous enough to devote his pen to Girard's 
defense when, in later years, public gossips, self-styled 
biographers, joined the daily press in stigmatizing his 
honorable name. 

True, he was elected, in 1802, by the Democratic 

party to the Common Council of Philadelphia, in 

which office he served so well that in 1808 he was 

returned with more votes than any other man on the 

ticket; and this unprofitable token of favor was 

several times renewed, being followed in 18 19 by 

election to the Select Branch. For over twenty-one 

years, too, he served the city as Port Warden, an 

office to which he was regularly re-elected. But it 

remains, nevertheless, a perpetual reproach to the 

city of Philadelphia that during Girard's whole life his 

inestimable services, amid the reign of this terrible 

plague, were almost as utterly ignored as though such 

services were an every-day occurrence; while his 

fellow-citizens seemed to take an especial delight in 



70 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

fastening upon him such tales as tend to show him in 
the least attractive, if not in the most ridiculous pos- 
sible, light — all for the diversion of that public whose 
families he had rescued from most terrible sufferings, 
M not, indeed, in many instances, from a loathsome 
death. 

But, his services having been undertaken in the 
cause of humanity and not for public applause, it 
mattered but little to Girard that his work remained 
unappreciated in any tangible manner, and, his task 
of nursing done, he renewed his attention to his busi- 
ness and to public matters, one of his first noteworthy 
undertakings being in connection with a meeting of 
protest against the aggressions of British cruisers. 
This meeting was held March 13th, 1 794, at 
McShane's Harp and Crown Tavern, Third Street 
below Arch, and, Girard being in the chair, it was 
resolved that owners of American vessels had a righf 
to reimbursement of losses from vexation or spolia 
tion by these cruisers, and that additional imposts 
should be placed on goods from States so offending. 
"On the 1 8th a more general meeting was held in the 
State House yard, at which the meeting pledged itself 
1 cheerfully to support with their lives and fortunes 
the most expeditious and the most effectual measures 
(which appear to have been too long postponed) to 
procure reparation for the past, to enforce safety for 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. y l 

the future, to foster and protect the commercial inter- 
ests, and to render respectable and respected among 
the nations of the world the justice, dignity, and 
power of the American Republic' Resolutions were 
also adopted ' to extend to France and her citizens 
every favor which friendship can dictate and justice 
can allow;' to impose duties and prohibitions on 
British ships and manufactures until reparation could 
be obtained; and a committee was appointed to col- 
lect a fund for the relief of the crews of Philadelphia 
ships captured by the Algerine or other pirates. The 
fund, when collected, was put in the hands of thirteen 
trustees, of whom Girard was one, " 1 these trustees 
discharging their office with a fidelity and attention 
that demanded considerable sacrifice of private in- 
terests and doing infinite service to many of our 
unfortunate seamen who had been captured and held 
for ransom by those vindictive and merciless scourges 
of commerce. 

A second public task was entered upon on the 9th 
- of February, 1 799, when he was appointed one of the 
commissioners to receive subscriptions for the City 
Water Works, to be erected at Broad and Market 
Streets; 2 after which, with the exception of giving a 
barrel of gunpowder toward the artillery salutes at 
the Tammany Wigwam Democratic celebrations on 

1 Scharf and Westcott's History of Philadelphia. i6oQ-r884, Vol. I, p. 476. 
- Scharf and Westcott's History of Philadelphia, ante, p. 500. 



72 



LIFE OF STEPHEN G1RARD. 



November 15th, 1806, 1 he devoted himself for a 
considerable time entirely to his private affairs. The 
latter had by this time spread over almost the whole 
of the inhabited globe. Russia, India, China, and 
America were the boundaries of his ventures, and, 
with war spreading its rumors over the Continent 
of Europe, and the means of communication with 
outlying debtors daily becoming more uncertain and 
difficult, there was danger enough apparent in 
such widely scattered interests to have paralyzed the 
efforts of an ordinary man. 

But Girard was not an ordinary man. Foreseeing 
plainly the complications which were about to arise, 
he commenced in 1807 2 the endeavor to collect 
his funds at some one central point, and after the 
most strenuous exertions, necessitating the sending 
abroad of special agents 3 for the purpose, he 
succeeded, in the course of the next four years, 
in concentrating in the hands of his correspondents, 
the Messrs. Baring Bros. & Co., of London, the enor- 
mous sum of one hundred and ninety-four thousand 
four hundred and ninety-five pounds thirteen shillings 
and ninepence. 

For this he had no doubt more than one reason. 

1 History of Philadelphia, supra, p. 527. 

2 Explanatory Statement to Accompany a Memorial to Congress, etc., 9th 
March. 1812. 

3 Messrs. Charles N. Bancker and Joseph Curwen. See Explanatory State- 
ment, etc., supra. 

* See Explanatory Statement, etc., supra. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. y ^ 

First, his funds would be much more secure, lodged 
at any one point not on the Continent, than distributed 
in the hands of many bankers whose solvency, by 
reason of political disturbances, was a matter of daily 
uncertainty ; and second, the commerce of the Ameri- 
can States with European countries in general was so 
small that it would have been difficult to purchase 
bills of exchange upon them for such large amounts 
upon the Continent, while the credits could be easily 
transferred to England, whence was the bulk of 
American trade, and where bills upon American 
credits were obtainable for the largest sums without 
any material delay. 

Perhaps it is also possible that Girard had even 
then before his mind the profits of the investment he 
was eventually compelled to make in order to secure 
the transfer of these funds to America when they 
were collected, although it is not likely he was able to 
foresee that deterioration of the English currency 
which followed the Continental troubles, and which 
was the first cause of his London correspondent's 
failure to remit. However this may have been, it 
was not long after these funds had been gathered in 
the hands of Messrs. Baring Bros. & Co., that he 
found they were either unable or unwilling to transfer 
them to America, according to his positive directions 
on the subject. 
4 



j a LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

Alarmed by the suggestions of war between the 
two countries, and the certainty of the confiscation of 
his credits by the British Government in that untoward 
event, Girard resolved to exhaust these credits by the 
purchase in London of American six per cent, stocks 
and shares of the Bank of the United States. Ac- 
cordingly, in 1810, he forwarded instructions to 
Messrs. Baring Bros. & Co. to make these purchases, 
charging them to his account, the value of the bank 
shares being then much depreciated by reason of the 
state of affairs, as well as through the apprehension 
of the non-renewal of its charter. After much delay 
in London, this was finally accomplished in the follow- 
ing year, four hundred and twenty dollars per share, 
on a par value of five hundred dollars, being paid for 
the bank stock, and, after additional delay, caused by 
his correspondents' neglect to deliver the stock when 
requested, after they had purchased it, Girard sent a 
special agent to England 1 to whom it was finally 
transferred, and by him forwarded to America. 

The extent of this great operation having become 
noised abroad, Girard's wealth was brought promi- 
nently before the public, which resulted, in 181 1, in 
an attempt on the part of James Sylvanus M'Clean 
and William L. Graham to kidnap and extort money 
from him through checks which they hoped to com- 

1 Mr. Joseph Curwen. 






LIFE OF STEPHEN- GIRARD. y r 

pel him to draw after they had obtained possession of 
his person. These men had rented a small house in 
Philadelphia, to which it was purposed to entice him 
upon a proposition to buy goods, their idea being to 
remove him subsequently to a small ship in the Dela- 
ware, where he was to be confined until their demands 
were satisfactorily complied with. The plot was dis- 
covered by Girard, however, before an attempt had 
been made to put it into execution, and the men, being 
arrested, were bound over to answer. After remain- 
ing in prison several months, the elder and instigator 
was declared insane, and a guilty knowledge not 
having been conclusively brought home to the 
younger, he was acquitted in March, 1812. 1 

It is to be supposed that, having acted as one of a 
committee which, in 1809, had drafted the memorial 
to Congress in favor of the re-charter of the Bank of 
the United States, Girard was especially justified in 
believing, with the majority of business men, that the 
charter would be renewed upon its expiration. He 
was doubtless, therefore, much surprised at the folly 
displayed in the refusal of Congress to heed the great 
public demand for its resuscitation; but in the interval 
which had elapsed between the purchase of its shares 
in England and the actual extinction of the bank, his 

*Seey? Report of the Trial of fames Sylvanus M' Clean, alias f. Melville 
and William L. Graham, for a Conspiracy to Extort Money from Stephen Girara 
Esq,, Philadelphia, 1812. 



7 6 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



prudence had matured a plan by which he could 
secure himself from loss in any event. This was 
simply the purchase of the whole outfit, bank build- 
ing, cashier's house, paper, and general paraphernalia, 
which, after the pending dissolution had become 
a certainty in the spring of 1812, was accomplished 
by him for the sum of one hundred and twenty 
thousand dollars, and on the twelfth day of May, of 
the same year, he reopened the old bank building 
under the new title of " The Bank of Stephen 
Girard," with a capital of one million two hundred 
thousand dollars, increased, on the first of January, 
181 3, to one million three hundred thousand dollars. 
The opening of the new Bank was not delayed by 
waiting for the engraving of new notes, nor, indeed, 
by any preparatory measure whatsoever, 1 for while 
the new notes were being engraved and printed for 
him, payments were made in those of the State banks, 
these notes being afterward exchanged for his own. 
The latter bore the device of an American eagle and 
a ship under full sail, and were signed by himself and 
countersigned by his cashier. 2 From the very outset 
they passed quite as current as those of the old Bank 
of the United States, their redemption in specie being 
never refused, 3 and an added stability was lent their 
character through the deposit in the new Bank's 

1 Simpson, p. ioo. 2 Simpson, pp. 99 and 101. 

3 See The National Gazette, Philadelphia, December 27th, 1831. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 77 

vaults of about five millions of dollars in specie be- 
longing to the old Bank of the United States. 1 

It was the rule of the Bank to first discount the 
notes of small merchants and traders and of poor 
mechanics, the balance being then applied to the 
larger notes of more opulent men, 2 a preference, how- 
ever, being always given to the needs of the Govern- 
ment of the United States. During the whole of the 
War of 1812 Girard's Bank was the very right 
hand of the national credit, . for when other banks 
were contracting it was Girard. who stayed the panic 
by a timely and liberal expansion, 3 and frequent were 
the calls made upon him by the Government for tem- 
porary loans, which calls were invariably responded 
to immediately. 

It was during the continuance of that struggle that 
he first found an opportunity to use his knowledge of 
the Rancocas River, gained during his residence at 
Mount Holly, New jersey, for, having three vessels 
lying comparatively unprotected at his wharf in the 
Delaware, he sent them up the Rancocas, mooring 
them " stem and stern " across the stream and arming 
them with men and cannon, where they lay without 
molestation until the alarm was over. 4 Doubtless, 
in this remembering of minute details and readiness 
to avail himself of them in emergency, lay one of the 

1 Simpson, p, 98. 2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. 

3 Parton, p. 238. 4 Professor William Wagner, Lecture I. 



7 8 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

chief secrets of Girard's success, and his genius was 
as strongly shown in the celerity with which he 
recovered from occasional heavy reverses as in his 
usual phenomenal good fortune. In one of his letters 
he says : 4 We are all the subjects of what you call 
' reverses of fortune.' TRe great secret is to make 
good use of fortune, and when reverses come receive 
them with sang froid, and by redoubled activity and 
economy endeavor to repair them." A striking 
instance of the practice of this creed is found in 
his remedy for the catastrophe to his vessel, the 
" Montesquieu." 1 This fine ship, after having passed 
through thousands of miles of ocean without meeting 
a single British cruiser, or speaking any other vessel 
that could tell her of the war then going on between 
Great Britain and the United States, arrived on the 
night of the 26th of March, 18 13, within the Capes of 
Delaware, the very spot where he had so narrowly 
escaped with " L' Aimable Louise" in 1776. Pre- 
cisely as had happened upon the former occasion, she 
commenced to discharge guns for a pilot, thus form- 
ing a coincidence of peril in the commencement of 
our two great wars with the mother country which 
was, to say the least, of a very remarkable character. 
The firing soon attracted the attention of a small 
British schooner called " La Paz," indignantly de- 

1 Arey, p. 18. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. jg 

scribed by Girard as about the size of a wood-shallop, 
which was then lying inside the cape, off Lewistown, 
and proved to be a tender to the British man-of-war, 
" Poictiers," of the British blockading squadron. As 
soon as the light and the tide served in the morning, 
this small and ill-manned craft sailed up to the unre- 
sisting though well-armed " Montesquieu " and cap- 
tured her and her valuable cargo entire. 

The " Montesquieu" had sailed from Philadelphia 
on December 17th, 18 10, for Valparaiso, and from 
thence to Canton, where she arrived on February 
19th, 1 8 12, and whence she had sailed for Phila- 
delphia in November of the same year, having on 
board a most valuable Chinese cargo, the fruits of a 
cruise of more than two whole years' duration. 1 The 
loss at his very door, after passing safely through 
all the perils of the sea, of this fine vessel, 
valued at from fifteen to twenty thousand dollars, and 
of her cargo, invoiced at one hundred and sixty- 
four thousand seven hundred and forty- four dollars, 2 
neither of which was insured, was a severe 
trial to Girard. But he immediately set about 
repairing the disaster, and after the necessary 
negotiations with Sir John Beresford, who then 
commanded the British squadron in our waters, 
a flag of truce was granted him by the Gov- 

1 Arey, p. 18. 

2 Statement of Case in Girard vs. Ware et all, i Peters C. C. Rep. 142. 



8o 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



ernment to carry down the ransom money, which 
amounted to one hundred and eighty thousand 
dollars. 1 This was paid in coin, happily pro- 
vided by his " little institution," as he called 
his Bank, 2 and the " Montesquieu," being re- 
leased, proceeded up to the city, where his calcula- 
tions and foresight were fully justified in the result. 
His books show that, notwithstanding the heavy loss 
of the ransom, the cargo brought such enormous 
profits in consequence of the scarcity caused by the 
war, the sales amounting to four hundred and 
eighty-eight thousand six hundred and fifty-five 
dollars, 3 that his private fortune was increased thereby 
in a manner that was very material. 4 

On another occasion during this struggle he 
displayed his readiness in emergency, for at about 
the same period of general panic he had a large 
amount of silver in the vaults of his Bank and 
a heavy stock of silks and nankeens in his ware- 
houses, which seemed to be in great danger of 
capture by the British. Troops gathering on all 
sides and fortifications being erected warned him that 
he must take immediate action to secure the safety of 
these valuables, and accordingly he determined to 
send them to Reading. Engaging ten six-horse 
teams with canvas-covered wagons, he loaded three 

1 Girard vs. Ware et a/., supra. 2 Simpson, p. 107. 

3 Girard vs. Ware et al. a supra. 4 Arey, p. 19. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. g j 

with the silver and the remaining seven with the silks 
and nankeens, and dispatched the whole convoy to 
that town under the charge of William Wagner, 
an eighteen-year-old apprentice. Many amusing 
incidents occurred during the transit, which occupied 
three days, but the caravan arrived safely at its desti- 
nation, notwithstanding the difficulties of pouring 
rain and defective roads, the silver being deposited in 
bank and the silk in warehouses, which had been 
previously engaged for its reception. It is surprising 
to reflect that the whole responsibility of this enter- 
prise was rested upon the shoulders of so young a 
man ; but the accuracy of Girard's estimate of char- 
acter was abundantly proved in the result, for much 
of the silk having been wet by the rains en route, was 
found to be considerably damaged when the cases 
were opened upon arrival. Equal to the emergency, 
however, the young apprentice purchased a quantity 
of bedcord and hung the damaged pieces in the sun 
to dry, after which he sent them to be dyed and 
re-pressed, the result being that they sold at a profit 
of one hundred per cent., justifying the extraordi- 
nary confidence his master had shown in him from 
I the outset. 1 

The war so completely prostrated the finances of 
the United States that the Government found itself, in 

1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture I. 

4* 



y 2 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

the year 1814, at the extremity of its resources, with 
an army and navy clamoring for supplies, a public 
panic-stricken by the ominous outlook, or indifferent 
to the Government's necessities and in some cases 
actually inimical to its longer existence separate 
from Great Britain. Appeals to patriotism were vain 
when it was known the Treasury had been so heavily 
drawn upon that practically no means remained to 
purchase the supplies essential to prolong the strug- 
gle, and the only possibility of relief apparent in the 
disastrous prospect lay in the faint hope that an 
additional loan might be floated upon the Government 
credit. It was accordingly determined to attempt 
this, and the amount was fixed at five millions of dol- 
lars, the bonds to bear interest at the rate of seven 
per cent, per annum, while as an additional allurement 
to capitalists a bonus of thirty per cent, was offered, 
so large an amount, indeed, that even under the cir 
cumstances it was considered enormous. Large, how- 
ever, as it was, and strenuous as were the exertions of 
the financial agents of the Republic to place the 
bonds, the day for the closing of subscriptions arrived 
with but twenty thousand dollars' worth subscribed 
for. What was to be done ? Failure of the loan 
meant the end of the war, and its failure but a pre- 
face to the destruction of the States in detail. It 
was a moment for a patriot. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. g * 

Girard did not, however, permit the question to 
be asked a second time. Determined to stake his 
whole fortune on the failing arms of the country of 
his choice, once again the citizen of adoption stepped 
in where native Americans saw nothing but loss and 
personal danger, and set his name opposite the whole 
of the loan yet unsubscribed for. The effect was in- 
stantaneous and electrical. " The timid became bold, 
and the avaricious fancied themselves transformed 
to patriots. Those who had shrunk from it as from a 
gulf of ruin, now rushed forward, clamorous for a 
share," 1 and, the danger averted, they were permitted 
to have it upon the original terms, although an ad- 
vance of five to ten per cent, could have been obtained 
without the slightest difficulty. 

The sinews of war thus furnished and public con- 
fidence restored, a series of brilliant victories resulted 
in a peace, to which Girard thus referred in a letter 
written in 1815 to his correspondent, Morton, in 
Bordeaux : " The peace which has taken place be- 
tween this country and England will consolidate for- 
ever our independence and insure our tranquillity, " 2 
an opinion justified, as we know, in the result, and to 
which tranquillity Girard added not a little by writing 
to A. J. Dallas, then Secretary of the Treasury, as 
follows ; " I am of opinion that those who have any 

1 Simpson, p. 109. s Arey, pp. 19 and 20. 



%a LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

claim for interest on public stock, etc., should patiently 
wait for a more favorable moment, or at least receive 
in payment Treasury notes. Should you be under 
the necessity of resorting to either of those plans, 
as one of the public creditors I shall not murmur." l 

But from these stirring scenes without Girard was 
recalled, on the 13th of September, 18 15, to the final 
scene of his domestic grief by the notification that 
his wife, who had lingered through a painless blank 
of twenty-five years' duration, was dying, still insane. 
What chords of memory this notice touched can be 
easily imagined. He had sought the legislative inter- 
vention of divorce some years after his wife's admis- 
sion to the Hospital on the ground of her incurable 
affliction ; but the bill had failed, and now in his sixty- 
fifth year he found himself free through the hand 
of death, but with no child to bear his name or in- 
herit the accumulations of his years of ceaseless toil. 
One can only guess the sad recollections of the early 
days of his married life that must have stirred in his 
bosom at word that the body of her whose mind had 
died so long ago at last lay dying also — the days 
when, secure in the affection of the beautiful young 
girl he had married, the future opened to the success- 
ful young merchant in the brightest colors; the 
happy period on the little farm at Mount Holly, 

1 Arey, p. 20. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. gc 

followed by the contented life of their city home ; and 
then the doubt, resolving into a still more fearful cer- 
tainty, which opened the chapter now about to close. 
But although, doubtless, he did not attempt to conceal 
from himself how hopelessly his life in a certain sense 
had failed, he was a man of marvellous self command, 
and no outward sign was seen of the thoughts that 
moved him inwardly ; only he bowed his head, and 
after a moment's pause, requested to be told when all 
was over; then, entering his chamber, closed the door, 
communing with his grief and bitter thoughts alone. 

" Toward the close of the day, after the sun had 
withdrawn his last beams from the tallest sycamore 
that shades the garden, Mr. Girard was sent for, and 
when he arrived with all his family the plain coffin of 
Mary Girard was carried forward to her resting- 
place in deepest silence." l " I shall never forget the 
last and closing scene. We all stood about the coffin 
when Mr. Girard, filled with emotion, stepped forward, 
kissed his wife's corpse, and his tears moistened 
her cheek." 2 

The burial was conducted in accordance with the 
manner of the " Friends," who have the management 
of the Hospital. Following a hush of a few minutes' 
duration, the coffin was lowered into the grave, and 
another silence ensued, after which Girard bent over 

1 Simpson, p. 37. 2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture I. 



g5 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 






and bestowed a last look upon his dead wife, then, 
turning from the new-made grave, said to Samuel 
Coates, " It is very well," and immediately returned 
to his home. 1 

She was buried, at Girard's request, in the lawn at 
the north front of the Hospital, 2 a few feet west of the 
grave of Charles Nicholes, a native of the island 
of Jersey, who died in Philadelphia 31st December, 
1807, having given the Hospital five thousand dollars 
on condition that he should be interred there. 3 Some 
days after the burial had taken place Girard gave the 
nurses, attendants, and other assistants various small 
sums of money as a reward for their care of his 
wife while in the Hospital, and to the institution itself 
he gave the sum of one thousand one hundred and 
twenty-five pounds in Pennsylvania currency, equiva- 
lent in specie to about three thousand dollars. 4 

It was Girard's original intention to have been 
buried here himself, and, indeed, a lovelier spot could 
hardly have been found within the city, the smooth 
lawns, broken with occasional flower-beds, shaded 
by tall sycamores, and kept with Quaker-like sim- 
plicity and neatness, having an especial charm for 
the sensitive Frenchman. But this wish was destined 
never to be carried into effect, and no other permits 
having ever been granted for interments within the 

1 Simpson, p. 37. * Simpson, p. 36. 

8 William G. Malin, ex-steward Pennsylvania Hospital. 4 Simpson, p. 37. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN G1RARD. gy 

grounds, these two are the only persons ever buried 
in that beautiful spot. The lawns and flower-beds 
still remain, shaded by the ancient trees, but the 
actual site of these graves is now covered by the 
Clinic building, erected in 1868, they both being 
under the northernmost portion of that structure, 
north of the roadway which passes through the 
building. They were, of course, undisturbed in build- 
ing, for the addition has no cellar, 1 but no trace of 
them can now be seen, the custom of the " Friends " 
forbidding a headstone to be placed at a grave, and 
the simple mound of earth which alone marked the 
resting-place of Mary Girard having been previously 
leveled. 

The year 18 16 witnessed the chartering by President 
Madison of the second Bank of the United States, 
and Girard having been named one of the commis- 
sioners, the books were opened at his Bank in the 
spring of that year for subscriptions to the stock. 
But confidence in the nation's fiscal ventures was very 
slow in arising, and the days rolled by bringing 
so few subscribers that at last it was self-evident that 
the scheme would fail. Until this time Girard had 
held aloof, determined to take no part unless he found 
his name essential to success, but when the closing 
hour arrived, with less than half the shares subscribed 

1 William G. Malin, supra 



88 



LIFE OF STEPHEN G1RARD. 



for, it was evident the time for action had arrived, and 
he therefore placed his name opposite the unsub- 
scribed-for stock, amounting to three million one 
hundred thousand dollars. Stimulated by his confi- 
dence, the same immediate and gratifying effect upon 
the public was observed as had followed his similar 
action in 1814, and, yielding to the solicitations of 
those who had become importunate for shares, his 
stock was sold again at par, until at last not more than 
a million and a half of the whole amount for which he 
had originally subscribed was left standing in his 
name. 1 His interest in all public matters was of the 
keenest description, and it was but necessary to con- 
vince him that the general welfare was at stake to 
induce him not only to subscribe liberally himself, but 
to use every personal effort with others to insure the 
success of the enterprise under consideration. Thus, 
becoming persuaded that great advantage to the State 
would follow the improvement of her water-ways, 
he was the first to furnish efficient pecuniary aid 
to the Schuylkill Navigation Company, subscribing, 
at the very inception of the enterprise, to two 
thousand two hundred shares of the stock at 
fifty dollars per share, and subsequently, in 1823, 
lending the Company the sum of two hundred and 
sixty-five thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars for 

1 Simpson, p. 113. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. gg 

the purpose of better Accomplishing the laudable 
enterprise and to establish it upon a more secure 
foundation. 1 

Girard was now seventy-six years of age, and, the 
summit of his life being passed, that slow process of 
vital disintegration began which reconciles the body 
more easily to the shock of final transition. In 1826 
Dr. Monges was called in to attend him for a violent 
attack of erysipelas in the head and legs, by which 
he was confined to the house for several weeks, 
and which left so great resultant debility that it 
was some time before his vigorous natural stamina 
appeared to triumph over its inroads. He finally 
seemed to recover, however, but he evidently felt the 
need of a radical change of habit, for he altered his 
mode of living to a vegetable diet, which he con- 
tinued until the period of his death. 2 

It is probable that in stimulating the march of 
internal improvements Girard had no idea of the 
extent to which the movement would be carried 
through extravagance of State officials and the 
Legislature, or he would doubtless have hesitated 
much before committing himself as unreservedly 
to its advocacy as he did. His suggestions had 
fallen upon ground of alarming fertility, and it 
was not long before those in charge of public works 

* Simpson, p. 143. 2 Simpson, p 181. 



gO LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

seemed to have abandoned Commonest business pru- 
dence in making their expenditures. It must have 
been evident to all thoughtful people that such reck- 
lessness could not go on indefinitely, and but few 
could have been surprised when, in 1829, the State 
found its treasury empty, with not only no means to 
complete improvements already commenced, but actu- 
ally none to carry on the daily affairs of government, 
while, as a climax, the Legislature was adjourned. 

In such straits an extra legislative session was 
convened in order to provide for the remainder of the 
fiscal year, but in the interval, before it could assemble, 
the threatening contingency of bankruptcy made 
it an impossibility for the State to obtain credit for 
the actual daily outlay of its departments. In alarm, 
Governor Shulze came to Philadelphia and besought 
Girard to make the State a loan for the purpose 
of bridging the financial chasm which had opened 
before it, to his intense satisfaction meeting with 
a most cordial reception from the latter, who unhesi- 
tatingly, and with the single object of relieving the 
embarrassed Commonwealth, advanced one hundred 
thousand dollars upon the sole credit of the Execu- 
tive. 1 When it is remembered that there was no law 
to authorize the Governor's request, and that Girard 
was relying for repayment wholly upon the future 

1 Vide "An Act sanctioning the loan of #106,000.00," 18th January, 1830. 
Smith's Laws. 




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LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRaRD. g r 

action of the Legislature, a disavowal by which 
of the Governor's authority would have caused him 
to lose the whole sum, it will be conceded that in so 
serving the State he was displaying public spirit and 
patriotism worthy of the most enthusiastic commen- 
dation. 

This relief of the State appropriately formed the 
last public act of his life, but his attention to private 
business was unrelaxed, although his eyesight grew 
so dim that he could scarcely walk the streets in 
safety, In 1830 he was often found groping in the 
vestibule of his Bank, unable to find the door, 1 and it 
was about February 12th of that year that he was 
struck and thrown down by a furiously driven dear- 
born wagon as he attempted to cross the street at 
Second and Market, on his way home from the Bank. 
The wheel passed over his head, terribly lacerating 
his forehead, cheek, and. right ear, and injuring his 
remaining eye, but he regained his feet without assist- 
ance, and walked home unaided, where the wound 
was found to be more serious than had been at first 
supposed. " Drs. Physick and Clark were called 
in, and probing the wound, cleansed it from a quantity 
of gravel and sand. He bore the pain of dressing it 
without flinching, saying, \ Go on, Doctor, I am an old 
sailor ; I can bear a good deal ;' but inflammation 

1 Simpson, p. 181. 






02 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

setting in, for a fortnight or more his brain was in a 
terrible excitement. * * * After some weeks he 
rallied, but refused pertinaciously to attend to any 
business, saying that he ' would not be disturbed to 
be the gainer of a large sum.' Finally, he yielded to 
the entreaties of Mr. Wolfert, and in March signed 
his name to a business document, the event making 
quite a stir in the household. A desk was brought to 
his room, there was a great mending of pens (for 
he never used steel nor gold ones), and then a long 
page of paper was filled with trial signatures, * to get 
his hand in/ as he said. At last the document 
received the wished-for signature, Girard expressing 
himself as quite proud of the performance, which he 
wished noted down as the first time he had signed his 
7iame since the accident!' x 

After long confinement in bed, and a longer 
period during which he was unable to leave the 
house, he at length felt himself able to resume his 
habit of daily attendance at his Bank. But frequent 
subsequent lapses of memory justified grave appre- 
hensions on the part of his family, to which the 
marked diminution of his former vigor lent not a little 
additional force, and warned both him and them to 
prepare for that last vital change which the advanced 
years he had now attained indicated could not be 
long delayed. 

» Extract from notes of Henriettc Marie Girard-Clark (Vve. Lallemand). 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. q * 

On April 30th, 1830, he bought eleven tracts of 
coal land in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, contain- 
ing about four thousand acres, which were sold at pub- 
lic auction by the trustees of the old Bank of the 
United States for the sum of thirty thousand dollars. 1 
The tract afterward formed the subject of a lawsuit 
between the heirs-at-law of his estate and the city of 
Philadelphia, it being asserted on behalf of the heirs 
that as to this land Girard had died intestate, the 
mere color of title which he had at the date of his 
will not being such an estate in the land as could be 
devised. Girard had perfected his title subsequently 
to his will, but the heirs maintained that his subse- 
quent good title would not relate back and attach to 
his previous mere color of title in order to make the 
devise hold good. The city denied these claims and 
defended its possession under the will and codicils. 
The case was tried in 185 1 before a special jury in the 
United States Circuit Court, 2 the verdict being for the 
heirs, and a motion for a new trial being refused, 3 
the heirs were put in possession by the United States 
Marshal by virtue of a writ oi habere facias posses- 
sionem issuing upon the original judgment. Three 
years later, in 1854, the city brought suit in ejectment 

* Lessees of Clark vs. The City of Philadelphia, U. S. Circuit Court, Octobei 
sessions, 1850, Common Law Docket No. 31. Not reported. Same case on argu- 
ment for new trial reported in 2d Wallace, Jr.'s, Circuit Court Reports, page 301, 

2 Lessees of Clark vs. The City, supra. 

8 Reported 2 Wallace, Jr.'s, Circuit Court Reports, page 301. 



„ , LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

94 

against the heirs, but was defeated, and the Supreme 
Court of the State refusing to reverse the judgment 
of the lower court, 1 the heirs were thus confirmed, 
after protracted litigation, in the only material por- 
tion of Girard's immense estate of which they ever 
succeeded in divesting the city of Philadelphia. 2 

At a meeting of Philadelphia merchants, held on 
the 19th of July, 183 1, it was decided to build a Mer- 
chants' Exchange, at the intersection of Walnut, 
Dock, and Third Streets, and Girard was appointed 
one of the trustees to purchase and hold the said lot 
until the company was incorporated. 3 This was the 
last position of honor which his increasing feebleness 
permitted him to accept, and before the ureter had 
been fully completed he was attacked in D; //,niber of 
the same year by the influenza, which was then 

1 Case not reported. 

2 In Girard vs. The Mayor, and Vidal vs. The Same, both reverie-din 4 Rawle 
323, certain housesand real estate in Philadelphia were recovered by the heirs. The 
various Girard suits and discussions of his will are reported as follows : 

In the State Courts. — Girard vs. The Mayor, Vidal vs. The Same, 4 Rawle 
323; The City vs. Davis et al., 1 Wharton 490; Beck vs. The City, 5 Harris 104; 
SoohaneAT. The City of Philadelphia, 9 Casey 9 ; also 1 Grant 494; The City vs 
The Heirs, etc., 9 Wright 9 ; Field vs. The Directors of Girard College, 4 P. F. 
Smith 233 (54 Penna. State 233). 

In the United States Courts. — Vidal vs. Girard's Executors, 2 Howard 127; 
Girard vs. Philadelphia, 7 Wallace 1 ; Girard vs. Philadelphia, 2 Wallace, Jr., 301; 
Madeleine H. Girard et al vs. Philadelphia, 18 Legal Intelligencer 388. 

See also Ex parte Girard, 5 Clark 68, also reported 8 Legal Intellijencer 150; 
Girard vs. Ware, 1 Peters Circuit Court Reports 142 ; Girard vs. Hutchinson, 2 
Sergeant and Rawle 188 ; Girard vs. Hutchinson, 4 Sergeant and R«wl': 81 * Girard 
vs. Gettig, 2 Binney 234; Girard vs. Heyl, 6 Binney 253 ; Girard v; B-i. Dermott, 5 
Sergeant and Rawle 128; Girard vs. Stiles, 4 Yeates 1 ; Girarfl vs Vj gart, 5 Sex* 
geant and Rawle 19. 

3 Compare Scharf and Westcott's History of Philadelphia* , \ , tyi. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. gr 

epidemic in the city. The violence of the disease 
completely prostrated him, and pneumonia superven- 
ing, it became at once apparent that he could not 
survive the attack. 1 

But, as he had never exhibited any concern about 
life, so now neither did he display any fear of death, 
which was meeting him, as he had always hoped, in 
the midst of active labor. So fully, indeed, was he 
impressed with the idea that constant employment 
was one of the greatest duties in life, that about 
a month before this he had said, " When Death 
comes for me he will find me busy, unless I am asleep 
in bed. If I thought I was going to die to-morrow I 
should plant a tree, nevertheless, to-day," 2 which 
steady courage, staying by him to the last, forbade a 
tremor in face of the final moment. But, so far as the 
city was concerned, as soon as it became known that 
he was seriously ill it was everywhere agitated with 
the utmost anxiety and interest. "Inquiries after 
his health were incessant ; rumors as various and as 
contradictory followed one another in quick succes- 
sion, until the excitement of the public mind grew to 
a pitch equal to that which would have attended the 
illness of the first character of the Republic." 3 Of 
all this, however, the dying man remained uncon- 
scious to the last, his few remaining days being spent 

1 Arey, p. 25. 2 The American Daily Advertiser, Feb. 1st, 1832. 

• Simpson, p. 183. 



q6 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



in a stupor, from which he did not arouse until 
a short time before his death. 1 Then he left his 
bed and walked across the room to a chair, at once 
turning and going back, and, placing his weak, thin 
hand against his forehead, he exclaimed : " How 
violent is this disorder ! How very extraordinary it 
is !" and shortly after died, without speaking again. 2 

He died in the back room of the third floor of his 
Water Street mansion 3 at four o'clock in the afternoon 
of the 26th of December, 1831, aged eighty-one 
years and seven months, less five days. As soon 
as his death became known the authorities of the 
city, convening, decreed him a civic funeral. The 
flags of public buildings and of the shipping in 
the river were displayed at half-mast, and many 
public manifestations of regret for the loss of a 
distinguished and useful citizen were exhibited by the 
people. 4 Resolutions of regret were adopted by the 
Select and Common Councils of the City of Phila- 
delphia, and the following advertisement was inserted 
in several of the daily papers: 

" The funeral of the late Mr. Stephen Girard will 
proceed from his late residence, North Water Street, 
to the burial ground of the Holy Trinity Church, 
N. W. corner of Spruce and Sixth Streets, at 10 
o'clock on Friday forenoon, December 30th. 

1 Arey, p. 25. 2 Professor William Wagner, and compare Simpson, p. 184 

3 Simpson, p. 184. 4 Arey, p. 25. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. gj 

" The trustees of the Bank of Stephen Girard are 
requested to meet and proceed together as mourners, 
next after the relatives of the deceased. 

" An invitation is respectfully given to the public 
bodies, institutions, and societies hereinafter named, 
to proceed to the funeral in the following order: 

" The Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen, and the Select 
and Common Councils, with their officers. 

" The Wardens of the Port of Philadelphia. 

H The officers and members of the Grand Lodge of 
Pennsylvania, and of the subordinate Lodges. 

" The officers and members of the Society for the 
Relief of Distressed Masters of Ships and their 
Widows. 

" The officers of and contributors to the Pennsyl- 
vania Hospital. 

" The Comptrollers, Directors, and others of the 
Public Schools. 

"The officers and members of the Pennsylvania 
Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. 

" The officers and members of the Orphan Asylum. 

" The officers and members of the Societe de Bien- 
faisance Francaise. 

" The officers and members of the Fuel Savings 
Society. 

" Other benevolent societies are respectfully invited, 
and requested to proceed next after the Fuel Savings 
Society. 

" In a community in which Mr. Girard was as univer- 
sally known as he was useful, it is not practicable to 
give special invitations to individuals, nor is it sup- 

5 



9« 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



posed that invitations will have been expected. All 
those who knew Mr. Girard personally or by reputa- 
tion, and who revere his example and memory, are 
respectfully invited to attend his funeral. 

".'. It is customary to protract the time fixed for 
funerals for an hour beyond that designated. In the 
present instance the procession will positively move 
at II o'clock. 

" I® 1 * The procession will move up Water Street to 
Arch, up Arch Street to Sixth, down Sixth Street to 
the place of interment, at the corner of Spruce and 
Sixth Streets." 1 

This programme was exactly carried out, the same 
paper containing on the afternoon of that day the fol- 
lowing paragraph : 

" The funeral of the late Mr. Girard was attended 
at the appointed hour this forenoon. The coffin was 
carried in an open hearse ; it was covered with black 
cloth, with silver trappings. The extent of the pro- 
cession could not be discerned from any one point, 
and the number of persons in the concourse, compris- 
ing the societies and city officers alone, could not 
have been short of a thousand. Spectators on the 
sidewalks and in the streets were in countless multi- 
tudes — forming an immense assemblage of many 
thousands of our citizens. So large a funeral, it is 
believed, was never before known in this city." 

Another paper of the next day contained a some- 
what fuller account in the following terms : 

1 The Philadelphia Gazette, December 29th, 1831. 






LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. gg 

" The funeral of Mr. Stephen Girard took place 
yesterday morning at the hour indicated in the 
programme published in the papers. The hearse was 
preceded by the police of the city, and the whole of 
the city watch walked beside the mourning-carriages, 
with broad blue ribbons on their breasts marked, 
1 City Watch/ Next to the mourners on foot were 
the Mayor and Recorder of the City, with broad 
mode hat-weepers and scarfs. The Aldermen and 
City Councils succeeded, and then a society of which 
the deceased was a member. This was succeeded by 
the officers of the Grand Lodge of Masons of Penn- 
sylvania and the officers and members of the subordi- 
nate lodges. The officers wore their collars and 
jewels, but not their aprons. These were succeeded 
by various societies, constituting perhaps the largest 
funeral procession ever seen in this city, and the 
streets, from the commencement to the termination of 
the procession, were thronged with immense numbers 
of all ages and both sexes. The body was conveyed 
in a richly decorated coffin on an open hearse." * 

" The funeral of Mr. Girard * * * was conducted in 
a mode consistent with the character of the deceased 
— with solemnity and decorum unaccompanied by 
pomp. The hearse was followed by five carriages 
conveying the females whose attendance was thought 
proper. Then followed the other mourners, and after 
them the members of the City Corporation and 
the representatives of societies invited, with a large 
number of citizens, the whole forming a procession of 

1 United States Gazette, December 31st, 1831. 



, o0 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

immense extent and most respectable appearance. 
Fifteen carriages brought up the rear. 

" The streets through which the procession passed 
were thronged, and the conduct of those assembled 
was that of persons desirous not of gratifying 
curiosity, but of paying a last tribute of respect to a 
great public benefactor. Respecting the provisions of 
the will, the chief of which are understood to be as 
we stated yesterday, we hear but one opinion — that 
they are what might have been expected from a man 
of consummate sagacity intent upon doing the utmost 
possible good to the community in which he had 
lived and died." 1 

Owing to a misapprehension on the part of one of 
his executors in regard to Girard's wishes in relation 
to his burial-place, the will had to be read very soon 
after his death, 2 and, the public being thus early 
in possession of the facts, the following advertisement 
appeared on the day of the funeral : 

" The late Stephen Girard, Esq., having by his will 
left very handsome bequests to the City of Philadel- 
phia, as well as during his lifetime very extensively 
contributed to its beauty and improvement, it is re- 
spectfully suggested to all citizens who are not con- 
scientiously scrupulous to close their windows at least 
from the hours of ten to twelve o'clock as a testimony 
of gratitude and respect to the memory of their 
liberal benefactor." 3 

1 The Daily Chronicle, Philadelphia, December 30th, 183 1. 

2 Louise Stockton, in The Continent, June 20th, 1883, P- 778* 
8 The American Daily Advertiser, December 30th, 1831. 









LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. IQI 



The windows of houses in the streets leading to 
the church were accordingly closed during the pas- 
sage of the funeral procession, 1 which finally halted at 
the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, at the 
northeast corner of Sixth and Spruce Streets. There 
the mortal remains of Girard were placed in the vault 
of the Baron Henry Dominick Lallemand, General of 
Artillery under Napoleon Bonaparte, who had married 
the youngest daughter of Girard's brother Jean. 
Owing to the presence of the Masonic fraternity, the 
necessary permission to do this was only obtained 
from the clergy of the parish under threat of legal 
proceedings on the part of the executors, the priests 
refusing to officiate, and leaving the churchyard when 
that Society entered ; so that after the manner of the 
" Friends," and amid a silence broken only by the 
murmur of the crowd of citizens, Girard at last was 
laid at rest in the heart of the city he so deeply loved. 

Many manifestations of regret and encomiums upon 
the character of the dead philanthropist were pub- 
lished in the city newspapers during the month follow- 
ing his interment, among them the subjoined, from 
which have been eliminated some apparent errors of 
fact: 

" He was always generous to the poor in times of 
distress, particularly in the cold of winter. Often 

1 Simpson, p. 187. The American Daily Advertiser, December 30th, 1831. 



102 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 






have his stores of wood accumulated in his Market 
Street Square been freely distributed to the friendless 
and shivering. His purse, too, has been generally 
found ready to open for any case of real distress 
which was communicated properly to him. * * * 
His unimpeached integrity, active habits of business, 
and promptness had given the public great confidence 
in him. * * * * So unlimited has been public 
confidence in him, that the most wealthy French emi- 
grants have uniformly deposited their funds in his 
hands. The present King of France is supposed to 
have consigned him immense sums to be out of 
harm's way, and Joseph Bonaparte's specie was all 
safely placed in the Third Street vaults." 1 

Another journal/speaking of the personal esteem 
in which Girard was held by the respectable citizens 
of his day, adds : 

" But to those who knew him in distant towns and 
cities as a rich banker, and only by report his benevo- 
lent exertions in the cause of suffering humanity— 
his uniform probity and uprightness are not perhaps 
so familiar. Here, however, where the field of his 
benevolent labor is spread open to all observers, his 
character for real improvement and judicious philan- 
thropy can be well attested." 2 

At risk of fatiguing the reader, the following resolu- 
tions are subjoined, which were offered by William J. 
Duane in Select Council on the 28th of December, 

1 The Saturday Bulletin, Philadelphia, December 31st, 1831. 
* The Philadelphia Gazette, December 27th, 1831. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. io ^ 

183 1, they having been unanimously adopted in that 
body, and subsequently in the Common Council : 

" The members of the Select and Common Coun- 
cils of the city of Philadelphia learn with deep 
sorrow that their esteemed and venerable fellow- 
citizen, Stephen Girard, has departed forever from 
the scene of his long and memorable useful- 
ness. Contemplating * * * * the ulti- 
mate variety and extent of his wealth and works, 
the mind is filled with admiration for the man, 
and profoundly impressed with the value of his 
example. Numerous and solid as the edifices are 
which he constructed in the city and precincts of 
Philadelphia, they will constitute but a transitory 
record of what he was when compared with the moral 
influence that must arise from a knowledge of the 
merits and means by which he acquired his immense 
estate. Those merits and means were probity of the 
strictest kind, diligence unsurpassed, perseverence in 
all pursuits, and a frugality as remote from parsimony 
as from extravagance. The goodness of his heart 
was not manifested by ostentatious subscriptions or 
loud professions, but when pestilence stalked abroad 
Stephen Girard risked his life to preserve from its 
ravages the most humble of his fellow-creatures; and 
whenever sorrow, unaccompanied by immorality, 
approached his door it was thrown wide open. His 
person, his habits, and his home evinced the love of 
what was simple and his disregard of ostentation. 
Above all men most able to revel in luxury or to roll 
in a splendid equipage, he fared at all times alike, and 



IQ a LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

within a few days of his death rode in the style of 
a plain farmer, rather than that of a rich banker. He 
was a devoted friend to those principles of civil 
and religious liberty which form the basis of the 
political fabric of his adopted country, and when 
in the course of the last war the credit of that country 
was impaired, he mainly contributed to arrest the 
threatened consequences. To say all this is but 
to aver what all those of mature age in this city must 
know or have heard. 

"Resolved, That the Clerks of Councils be, and they 
are hereby instructed, to cause the respective halls to 
be hung with mourning as a mark of respect to Ste- 
phen Girard, Esq." x 

For twenty years the body of Girard reposed 
undisturbed where it had been laid in the church- 
yard of the Holy Trinity Church, when, the 
Girard College having been completed, it was re- 
solved that the remains of the donor should be 
transferred to the marble sarcophagus provided in 
its vestibule. " Some of the heirs * * * * 
objected to this transfer, alleging that the body of 
their relative had been deposited in the vault of 
the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, Sixth 
and Spruce Streets, in accordance with his own 
wishes, and that there was no authority, either in the 
Masonic Order or in the city of Philadelphia, to 
remove them. It was an important fact that they had 

1 The American Daily Advertiser t December 30th, 1831. 



L 1FE OF S TEPHE IV GIRARD. j Q r 

been removed before application had been made for 
an injunction. The point was strongly debated on 
both sides. Judge Edward King, of the Common 
Pleas, before wnom the motion for an injunction was 
discussed, took the view that the body having been 
removed, an injunction against removing it could not 
be consistently granted. The public ceremonies had 
also been arranged for, and finally he continued the 
case without making any decision, stating that if an 
injunction could be legally ordered after the remains 
had been actually removed from the churchyard, it 
could be as well disposed of afterward upon full argu- 
ment on bill and answer and final decree. Nothing 
was ever done afterward in relation to the matter. 
* * * * Under the particular state of the case, 
the old adage that possession is nine points of the 
law became available. 1 

"The ceremonies of- this second funeral, which 
took place on September 30th, 1851, were entirely 
Masonic, under the direction of the Grand Lodge 
of Pennsylvania, which upon this occasion permitted 
the first parade of the brotherhood for many years. 
Care was taken to present the members of the 
Order under the most favorable circumstances. 
They were uniformly attired in full-dress suits of 
black and wore white kid gloves (the white sheer> 

1 Ex-parte Girard, 5 Clark 68 ; also reported 8 Legal Intelligencer 150. 

S* 



io6 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



skin apron of the Master Mason trimmed with 
broad edging of blue ribbon) and blue sashes 
ornamented with silver fringe. Fifteen hundred 
and nineteen members of the Order paraded, and 
the procession, in the fine appearance of the mem- 
bers, the personal respectability of all of them, and 
the decorum exhibited, had never been equalled 
in impressive character. The procession marched 
from the Masonic Hall, Third Street above Spruce, by 
the most direct route, via Ridge Avenue, to Girard 
College. Here the orphans under tuition in the insti- 
tution, three hundred in number, were placed upon 
the steps of the College building. The remains of 
the founder were brought forth and borne by twelve 
Past Masters to a platform erected on the east side of 
the main building for the purpose. The Grand 
Lodge was placed upon this elevation, the brethren 
being arranged in close columns before it. A dirge, 
composed for the occasion, was played by a band of 
musicians. * * * * A Past Master then deliv- 
ered an appropriate and eloquent oration and the 
Most Worthy Grand Master made a short address. 
The dirge was again performed. The remains of 
Girard were again removed to the vestibule of the 
College and deposited in the sarcophagus. The 
line of Masons filed along in front of the latter, and 
each brother deposited his palm branch upon the 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



IO7 



coffin as he passed. After this the march was re- 
sumed to Masonic Hall, where the members were 
dismissed." 1 

1 Scharf and Westcott's History of Fhilaaeiphia, 1609-1884, Vol. I (PhiladeV 
phia. 18&O. pp. 699 and 700. 




PIERRE GIRARD S CROSS OF SAINT LOUIS 



PART IL 

SOME idea of the little-understood personal char- 
acter of this remarkable man may be gained by 
considering, first, his appearance and the habits of his 
private life ; and second, his peculiar methods of 
transacting business, these last being illustrated by 
authentic anecdotes, or related by surviving associates. 
" The time will come when he will be better under- 
stood, and even while he remains the typical man of 
business — allowing nothing to move him from his 
purposes, inflexible, impetuous, never taking back 
his word for good or ill, daring yet cautious, hav- 
ing a brain that governed his heart — he will also 
have credit for his sterling manly virtues. He was 
one of the men to whom much was committed, and 
when his time came to give it up, he gave it, not as 
money to make money, but to the ' little ones ' with 
widowed mothers, and for the benefit of the city of 
his adoption." * 

The first of these personal indices is but defectively 
supplied by uie statue in front of the sarcophagus in 
Girard College, for while this work doubtless affords 
an excellent idea of his features at the time of his 

1 Louise Stockton, in The Continent, June 20th, 1883, p. 779. 

108 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. IO q 

decease, after they had been changed by acute suf- 
fering, it is of greatly inferior merit as regards the 
remainder of the figure. The face was copied from 
a death mask taken at the direction of Dr. John Y. 
Clark, 1 the second husband of Girard's youngest 
niece, Henriette, the Baroness Lallemand, and there- 
fore, considering the peculiar situation of the statue, 
is perhaps suitable as representing the philanthropist 
in contemplation of the charity which closed his 
life, although it may certainly be criticised as but 
defectively presenting the great merchant whose 
efforts made such charity possible. The artist, 
Gevelot, of Paris, never saw his subject; and having 
been obliged to formulate the figure from descrip- 
tions by untrained observers, aided by the clothing 
found among the deceased's effects, the result gives 
perhaps less room for surprise at his failure to depict 
the grave dignity of Girard's appearance, than for 
astonishment at his having satisfied the original body 
of Trustees. 2 Its cost is said to have been thirty 
thousand dollars, but from the outset it has been 
compared very disadvantageously with the painting 
by Otis, 3 a contemporaneous criticism of which latter 
is as follows : 

1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture II. 

2 Compare Memoirs and Autobiography of Some of the Wealthy Citizens of 
Philadelphia^ Philadelphia, 1846, p. 77. 

6 See page no. This portrait is in the possession of the descendants of Girard's 
brother, Jean Girard (de Mombrun). A copy is at Girard Coliege. 



j IO LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 






" We called yesterday to look at the portrait of 
Mr. Girard, now nearly painted by Mr. Otis, from 
a cast taken after death. Mr. Otis has, in nearly fifty 
cases, been remarkably fortunate in preserving upon 
canvas the exact features of persons who had not 
in their lifetime sate for a portrait, and in the present 
case we think he has been even more than usually 
successful. There are few of our citizens who do not 
remember the looks of Mr. Girard, and all who saw 
him alive will bear testimony to the faithfulness of 
the portrait. This is the only likeness ever taken 
of Mr. Girard, as he never sate to a painter during 
his life." 1 

In person Girard was heavily built, broad and 
square-shouldered, of middle stature, with strongly 
marked, rather handsome features, and gray eyes, of 
which the right, as has been said, was blind. His 
forehead rose in a regular curve to the crown of his 
head, and his hair, worn en queue, was powdered, until 
advancing age rendered that addition unnecessary. 2 
His person was scrupulously neat, and every morn- 
ing his French barber, one Dorphin, came to his 
house to shave him, dress and powder his hair, re-tie 
his queue, and brush his clothes, during which opera- 
tions Girard would converse with him, often giving 
him such excellent business advice that Dorphin 
eventually returned to France with profits of from 

1 The United States Gazette, December 31st, 1831. 

2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. 





fy^4x^4^Z^^^?*7 




LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j x x 

seventy to eighty thousand dollars, the result of 
the adventures recommended. 1 He kept a colored 
body-servant, too, one Samuel Arthur, afterward a 
witness to his will ; and in matters of dress he was 
as particular as his favorite people, the Quakers, 
whom, indeed, he much resembled. Like theirs, his 
clothing, while not in the prevailing fashion, was 
made of the best broadcloth, after his own direc- 
tions, plain, large, and comfortable, and never 
changing the cut, his coats being made by a French 
tailor, in the style then called " shad-belly," a spe- 
cies of dress-coat with square-cut, rolling collar, 
above which he wore square white linen cravats, 
which his nieces hemmed for him by the dozen. 
He specially imported from China silk underwear for 
his own use, and his trousers, which were very full 
and large and of the same material as his coat and 
waistcoat, surmounted low-topped walking-boots, of 
which he kept a pair for every day in the week. 2 

Personally he was grave, but not at all morose. 
Fear was utterly unknown to him, and under threats 
or abuse he was inflexible. 3 He was not easily 
aroused, but when angered was very passionate, 
though in later years his temper was completely under 

1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture II. 

2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. Louise Stockton, in The Continent^ June 
20th, 1883. 

* Professor William Wagner, Lecture II. 



j j 2 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

his control ; and a salient feature of his character was 
his great love for children, for strong horses, good 
dogs, and singing-birds. In his private office several 
canaries swung in brass cages, and these he taught to 
sing with a bird-organ specially imported for the 
purpose from France, while his love for animals was 
further manifested in the shape of a large watch-dog 
which he always kept in the yard of his city house. 
Each of his ships was similarly provided, and he was 
in the habit of saying that the faithfulness of these 
trusty animals not only economized the employment 
of men, but protected his property much more 
efficiently than services merely rendered for wages. 
His natural kindliness, however, was most promi- 
nently shown when he was surrounded by children, 
and it was in these happy moments alone that his 
gravity of manner unbent and the strictness of his 
discipline was relaxed. 1 When his nephews, John 
Fabricius Girard and Augustus Girard, engaging 
boys of sixteen and eight respectively, arrived from 
France, he not only felt, but openly expressed, the 
liveliest satisfaction. Knowing, however, his prone- 
ness to undue indulgence, he was afraid to keep 
them long with him, lest he should contract the 
habit of spoiling them, 2 and they were therefore 
hastily dispatched to Mr. Blondin Constant's school, 

1 Compare Parton, p. 241. 2 Simpson, p. 133. 






LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j j ^ 

the " Mount Airy College," where they received 
the greatest care and the most liberal education the 
school afforded. 1 He also acted as guardian to the 
daughters of his brother, Jean, after their parents' 
decease, making his house their home and showing 
them the greatest kindness, although in this case the 
expense of education was defrayed from the estate 
which they had inherited from their father. " He 
never bought a shawl or a dress for one that he did 
not for the others, and he remembered their girlish 
fancies. They were sent to the best schools, and 
after they had married from his house he petted then 
children and liked to have them about, and, indeed, 
felt a right to the little people." 2 And, not content 
with thus benefiting his own relatives alone, he 
brought up, educated, and furnished a home in his 
own dwelling for several young orphaned women of 
respectable family, 3 the fact that a person was with- 
out father and mother seeming to appeal most 
strongly to the natural benevolence of his character. 
But although he was thus indulgently fond of 
young people, he endeavored, nevertheless, to keep 
them constantly and suitably engaged, for so fully 
was he impressed with the idea that active employ- 
ment is one -of the greatest duties of life, that it 

1 Autobiographic de Jean Fabricius Girard. 

2 Louise Stockton, in The Continent, June 20th, 1883, p. 771. 

3 Professor William Wagner, Lecture I. 



1 1 4 LIFE 0F STEPHEN GIRARD. 

was one of his favorite maxims that no man should 
leave off business because he considered himself rich 
enough. He used to say that he attached import- 
ance only to labor, valuing his wealth no more than 
he did his old shoes, 1 and an amusing anecdote illus- 
trative of this creed is told of an Irishman who had 
applied to him for work. This being a form of 
appeal that touched Girard's theories very nearly, he 
was quite willing to assist the applicant, but having 
no actual work that needed to be done, he considered 
it an excellent opportunity to illustrate his theory that 
the pleasure of labor lay in the simple gratification of 
finding oneself employed. Accordingly, engaging 
the man for a whole day, he directed the removal 
from one side of his yard to the other of a pile of 
bricks which had been stored there awaiting some 
building operations ; and this task, which consumed 
several hours, being completed, he was accosted by 
the Irishman to know what should be done next. 
" Why, have you finished that already ?" said Girard, 
" I thought it would take all day to do that. Well, 
just move them all back again where you took them 
from ; that will use up the rest of the day," and 
upon the astonished Irishman's flat refusal to per- 
form such fruitless labor, he was promptly paid and 
discharged, Girard saying at the same time, in rather 

1 The American Daily Advertiser, February ist, 1832. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j j r 

an aggrieved manner, " I certainly understood you 
to say when you came that you wanted any kind 
of work." 

Doubtless he was himself amused at the failure of 
this instructive experiment, but being very tenacious 
in adherence to an opinion when once deliberately 
adopted, he still maintained his theory that labor was 
the one thing to be highly esteemed, and gave practi- 
cal illustrations of his belief in the conduct of his 
daily life. He valued always the thing itself, not 
the name, which may perhaps explain why, being 
an ardent republican, according to the French com- 
prehension of the term, he nevertheless associated 
himself with the Democratic party in America. 
He was convinced that the principles of true re- 
publicanism were most firmly secured by the creed 
of the latter, and accordingly allied himself with 
it, although, being keenly alive to the duties of a 
good citizen, he never permitted questions of party 
to interfere with the respect he manifested toward 
men in public office. Prominent among those whom 
he highly regarded was Thomas Jefferson, and he 
frequently expressed great veneration for the ex-Pres- 
ident, John Adams, while he seemed to admire no less 
the talents and patriotism of the son, John Quincy 
Adams. His regard for both of the latter seemed to 
iarise chiefly from the great services their family had 



; 



, g LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

rendered the country, 1 an observance of patriotic duty 
very close to the heart of Girard, and one which he 
had on many occasions had opportunity to manifest 
as an infinitely respected motive controlling his own 
actions. 

His individual habits shared the regularity and 
method that disciplined his business life, and were 
only suffered to be broken in upon when press of 
affairs demanded his personal supervision. He rose 
early, breakfasting between six and eight o'clock, 
according to the season of the year, making a hearty 
" American" breakfast of coffee or tea, meats and 
fish, the family usually following him about an 
hour later. He then devoted himself to business 
affairs in his counting-room until ten o'clock, when 
his presence was demanded by the discount hours 
at his Bank, which lasted until eleven, after which, in 
summer time, he would drive to his farm in Passyunk 
Township. 2 He is said to have had a singular 
aversion to riding in a carriage, 3 and his yellow- 
bodied gig, made in the height of the then prevailing 
mode by a Mr. Clayton, one of the best builders 
in Philadelphia, 4 was drawn by a single large and 
powerful horse of full-blooded stock. 5 His preference 

i Simpson, p. 141. 2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture II. 

3 Simpson, p. 169. 

4 Professor William Wagner: "My father drove an exact counterpart, by the 
same maker."— Lecture II. 

6 Lives of Eminent Philadetyhians , by Henry Simpson, p. 416. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



117 



for walking on all occasions and in every state of the 
weather, however, which lasted even to the latest 
days of his life, led him to use this vehicle seldom or 




STEPHEN GIRARD'S GIG. 



never, except to ride out to his farm ; and, before age 
had shorn him of his prodigious muscular strength, 
he as frequently walked to and from his plantation as 
he rode. He was not a little proud of his pedes- 



j j g LIFE OF STEPHFN GIRARD. 

trianism, and, in the hottest days of summer, often 
walked to the shipyard morning and evening when he 
was building a vessel, which being one of the most 
remote yards in Kensington, the feat, added to his 
other perambulations throughout the city, was not at 
all an inconsiderable one. 1 

In winter the daily visit to the farm was usually 
deferred until after dinner, which meal, whether he 
dined at home or in the country, was always 
taken between one and two o'clock. 2 At this great 
feast of the day, as at all other times, everything that 
could minister to the family's comfort and con- 
venience was provided in the greatest abundance. 
The table was furnished with the best meats the 
market afforded, and with vegetables and fruits 
of all kinds from his farm in profusion. The house 
was, further, at all times kept bountifully sup- 
plied with fruits of his own raising during 
their season, which were always freely accessible 
to the apprentices in the counting-house, who 
were, in general, not at all slow to avail them- 
selves of such a privilege. 3 At dinner he drank the 
best French claret, which he imported for himself, and 
of which he was a competent judge, rarely touching 
the heavier wines, and being at all times very abste- 

1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture IV. Compare Simpson, p. 169. 

2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. 

3 " Of these facts I have personal knowledge, as 1 have partaken of meals at his 
lable with his family hundreds of limes." — Professor William Wagner. Lecture II. 






LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



1I 9 



mious as to quantity. He had, further, a custom of 
taking a tablespoonful of Holland gin at about four 
o'clock in the afternoon, which he imported in stone 
crocks for his especial use; 1 but his favorite beverages 
were cider in season and coffee of a strength seldom 
tasted by others, which latter, however, owing to the 
iron strength of his constitution, never affected his 
nerves in the slightest. 2 

In the country he literally kept no table at all, but 
satisfied his appetite with bread, cheese, and claret or 
strong coffee, to which he added various vegetables 
from his farm, making this hasty luncheon while 
standing at a buffet. The bread and claret he always 
carried with him from town in his chaise box, 3 and, on 
returning home, supplied their place with three or 
four gallons of milk in a demijohn and a kettle of 
butter for his home use. 4 He took no supper at all, 
except occasionally a biscuit and a glass of water 
previous to going to bed, 5 and upon returning from 
the farm, usually about seven o'clock in the evening, 
he went immediately to his office, which was open for 
business until half-past seven, although, when affairs 
pressed, the apprentices were often occupied until 
eight or sometimes nine o'clock. Later in the even- 
ing his confidential clerk, John H. Roberjot, read 

1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture II. 2 Simpson, note to v> ?4 T . 

3 Simpson, note to p. 241, supra. •* Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. 

* Simpson, p. 165. 



i20 LIFE OF STEPHEN GJRARD. 

to him the letters received during the day,or else left 
them opened on his desk in the private counting- 
house, after consulting which, Girard gave directions 
for the following day, writing rough drafts of replies, 
which, if unfinished in the evening, were completed 
the next morning before going to the Bank. 1 At 
about twelve o'clock he nominally went to bed, 
although not by any means invariably to sleep, for he 
sometimes remained awake until one o'clock, or even 
later, according as business claimed his vigils or the 
incessant activity of his mind prevented sleep. 2 

His chief relaxation was the management of his 
farm of five hundred and sixty-seven acres, 3 which, 
as has been stated above, was situated in what was 
formerly Passyunk Township. In the supervision of 
this he took the keen interest of a man who finds in a 
favorite pursuit at once the most effective means 
of preserving his physical health and a relief from 
the multiplicity of cares overburdening a restless 
mind. When he found himself unable to make his 
daily visit, an apprentice, charged with the minutest 
directions for the labors of the day, was sent in his 
stead, for in this, as in all other matters, he left noth- 
ing to hazard or to the unguided discretion of subor- 
dinates. As soon as he stepped from his chaise the 
work he had planned to do was at once commenced, 

1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. 2 Simpson, p. 165. 

3 Vide Philadelphia vs. Girard's Heirs, 9 Wright's Pennsylvania Supreme Court 
Reports, p. 12. 



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LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j 2 \ 

and he superintended in person all the farm operations, 
in which task he took the greatest pleasure. Few of 
his vessels ever sailed for distant places without tak- 
ing out orders for choice plants, seeds, or fruit-trees, 
which new varieties of fruits and flowers were gradu - 
ally extended throughout the neighborhood, much 
of the celebrity which the markets of Philadelphia 
have enjoyed being thus due to his enterprise and 
love of such pursuits. 1 

He had two stalls in the South Second Street 
Market, where the produce of his farm was sent 
to be sold, and this was of such remarkably excellent 
quality that its immediate sale at prices above the 
ruling rates was always assured. In addition, he 
reared, fattened, and killed, every December, from 
one hundred and fifty to two hundred oxen for the 
provisioning of his ships, and this period was one 
of the greatest tribulation to such of the apprentices 
as were obliged to attend to the little-relished duty of 
selling the fat and hides, Every part of the animals 
thus killed was utilized after the most approved 
methods of experimental farming, and Girard demon- 
strated practically the great value to a farmer of 
economical administration, for his products, although 
of a most superior quality, as has been said above, 
were nevertheless put upon the market at so much 

1 Compare Arey, p. 20. 



122 LIFE 0F STEPHEN GIRARD. 

less cost than his neighbors', that they could have 
been sold profitably at the same rates had not the 
demand justified a considerable advance. 1 

Girard also took the greatest interest in domestic 
architecture, and from almost the beginning of Jiis 
permanent residence in Philadelphia to the time of 
his death, he was more or less constantly occupied in 
the erection of buildings. The first of these was his 
dwelling, No. 23 North Water Street, with the store- 
house and counting-room adjoining, and a warehouse 
on the wharf, which were built about 1800, and 
which were soon followed by the splendid stores fac- 
ing his dwelling and by his house upon the Dutilh 
estate, on Second Street below Spruce. Some time 
afterward he built the dwellings on Third Street, 
below his Bank, following them with a whole square 
on Brown Street, and still later, having purchased the 
plot of ground bounded by Eleventh, Twelfth, Chest- 
nut, and Market Streets, from Thomas Dunlap, for 
the sum of one hundred and twelve thousand dol- 
lars, 2 he commenced the erection of dwellings covering 
the entire square of land, some of which were still in 
the course of construction at the time of his death. 
The majority of the bricks for these last were made 
from clay found on the premises, 3 and Girard used to 

1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture II. 2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. 
3 Professor William Wagner, Lecture II. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



123 



buy whole rafts of lumber at a time, storing it upon 
this square to season until ready to be used, the 
circumstance indirectly giving rise to quite a curious 




THE HOUSE IN WATER STREET. 



event. This was the capture of a number of thieves 
who had been committing numerous daring burg- 
laries in various parts of the city, a cave being acci- 



j 2 A LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

dentally discovered beneath the immense piles of 
lumber which had been excavated by them for 
the purpose of storing the goods they had stolen, and 
in which they were eventually captured, like rats in a 
hole, surrounded by large quantities of various arti- 
cles of plunder. 1 

Girard usually projected the style and plan of his 
buildings himself, invariably refusing the dictation or 
suggestions of another, 2 and they were built in the 
most substantial manner, their owner taking the great- 
est satisfaction in solid construction. Many sanitary 
precautions were for the first time introduced into 
Philadelphia in these houses, and the operations of 
the builders were inspected by Girard from day to 
day with the keenest attention. But his chief triumph, 
and the most interesting of all the dwellings he 
designed, was the first one erected by him in Philadel- 
phia. This was his residence, No. 23 North Water 
Street, which united in a happy combination both 
comfort and a very considerable degree of elegance, 
the house being a four-story brick, whose sloping, 
copper-covered roof terminated in a ridge, surmounted 
by a railing and flanked by two great brick chimneys. 
The fagade presented two doors, one leading to his 
private counting-room, which, after the European 
custom, was the first floor front room of his house, 
and the other forming the main entrance of the 

1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. 2 Simpson, p. 170. 






LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



125 



dwelling. 1 The vestibule of this latter was paved 
with white and black marbles in diamond pattern, the 
same being carried back to and forming the floor of a 
transverse hallway and of the dining-room, which last 
was upon the same floor immediately back of the 
private counting-house, the two rooms communicating 
by a door across the transverse hall. Back of the din- 
ing-room was the tile-paved kitchen, and a door at the 
junction angle of the two halls led to the public count- 
ing-house, built upon an adjoining lot, from which in 
turn access could be had to a range of fire-proof stores, 
still further back upon the adjoining lot. The marble 
pavement of the dining-room, delightfully cool in 
summer, was covered in winter with heavy Turkey 
carpet, and the floor of the private counting-house, 
which was of hard woods and stained, was similarly 
provided during the continuance of cold weather. 
The furniture of this office was of the simplest charac- 
ter, its only ornament being a Chinese drawing of his 
ship, " Montesquieu," presented by one of his super- 
cargoes. Two canary birds, cared for by the ladies of 
the family, swung in cages, and Girard amused him- 
self at odd moments by teaching them to sing with 
an imported bird-organ that stood upon a little table. 

1 See water-color sketch of this house at " The Library Company of Philadelphia, 
Locust Street Branch," a duplicate of which is also preserved at the Girard College. 
See also cut of same in Scharf and Westcott's History of Philadelphia, p. 631. 



j 20 LIFE OF STEPHFN GIRARD. 

He sat and wrote at a mahogany desk, by the side of 
which stood a small fire-proof safe, about four and 
one-half feet high, with two doors and a marble top ; 
and this last was piled high with French editions of 
Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau, completing the 
inventory of the furniture. An even greater simplicity 
marked the public counting-room. One single and 
one double pine desk, mutilated by the knives of the 
apprentices, rough, lettered, and notched ; a good 
desk of walnut, used by Roberjot ; three or four 
chairs, and the same number of maps upon the walls, 
constituted the whole outfit of the office, where more 
business was done than in any other in the city of 
Philadelphia. The windows of his house were case- 
mented, and vaults in the cellar provided storage for 
the wines he imported for his private use. The sani- 
tary arrangements were especially considered, among 
others a marble bath-room being provided, and this 
was justly regarded a very unusual luxury, owing to 
the scarcity of water, street mains being a convenience 
not yet understood in the city. 

Another great innovation was the introduction 
of open coal fires throughout the house and in the 
counting-rooms ; and Girard designed ingenious sheet- 
iron shutters, sliding up and down in iron grooves let 
into the front masonry of the brick hearths, com- 
oletely doing away with risk of fire from sparks 






2 

3 



s 



2 
> 



o 

I 




LIFE OF STEPHEN G1RAKD. T 2 ~ 

thrown off into the room at night. He brought a 
cargo of coal from England, which lasted him more 
than a year, storing it upon his wharf, and this novel 
form of fuel burning in the counting-house fire-place 
attracted considerable attention, its use being then 
practically unknown in Philadelphia. 1 

The drawing-rooms occupied the whole second floor, 
and were furnished in what was in those days termed 
elegance, though now they would be styled plainly 
comfortable. The black ebony chairs were imported 
from France, a present from his brother Etienne, the 
seats being of crimson velvet plush, which, with the 
dark Turkey carpet covering the floor, formed an effec- 
tive contrast to various pieces of marble statuary pur- 
chased in Leghorn by his brother Jean [de Mombrun] 
and disposed in various parts of the room. There 
was a tall writing cabinet containing a six-cylindered 
mechanical organ, playing a great number of airs, 
which had been given him by the ex-King of Spain, 
and in the rear parlor was a table, also brought from 
Leghorn, the top of which was inlaid with parti- 
colored marbles. 12 

The sleeping-apartments were upon the third floor, 
Girard's own bed-room being in the rear, and the gen- 
eral aspect of these rooms was of that plain, simple, 

i Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. 

2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. The articles are now preserved at 
the Girard College in a very large apaitment, appropriated to that purpose on 
the first floor of the Main Building. 



L 2 g LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

and uncostly character that one would expect to find 
in the mansion of a respectable citizen having no rep- 
utation for unusual wealth. On his bedroom table he 
kept, unloaded, a brace of splendid blunderbusses, of 
Ketland's make, of admirable workmanship, with 
brass barrels and steel bayonets, that appeared never 
to have been used. In one corner stood a little, old- 
fashioned mahogany desk and bookcase, the latter 
containing a small collection of books, and colored 
prints representing the female negroes of Santo 
Domingo, hung upon the walls. A small print of 
his Bank was so placed that his first waking glance 
must necessarily light upon it, and from his windows 
the range of fire-proof stores, reserved for his choice 
merchandise and the best parts of his India cargoes, 
formed the most prominent object visible. The attics 
were reserved for the servants' sleeping-apartments, 
and from the balcony upon the roof and from the 
front windows of the house was presented a prospect 
of the glistening waves of the majestic Delaware, 
with his great ships riding easily at anchor, or moored 
at the wharf, receiving their valuable lading. 1 

To this house came frequently Joseph Buonaparte, 
Comte de Survilliers, brother of the Emperor Napol- 
eon I of France, and himself ex-King of Spain and 
of Naples, who, being at liberty to come any Sunday 

1 Simpson, pp. 163 and 164, and Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. 




JOSEPH BUONAPARTE':, GIFT TO GIRARD. 






LIFE OF STEPHEN G1RARD. x 2 g 

to dinner, availed himself of the privilege with consid- 
erable regularity. His gentlemen followers were 
included in this hospitable invitation, 1 and scarcely a 
Sunday passed without witnessing a gathering of some 
of the most noted Frenchmen of the day around 
Girard's table, among them being the Prince Murat 
and Baron Henry Dominick Lallemand, who, with 
his brother Charles, formed part of the Court at Bor- 
dentown. At these courteous festivities the convivial 
element was restrained by the presence of Girard's 
nieces, young women, aged twenty-three, twenty, and 
eighteen years respectively, whose affable and well- 
bred deportment added not a little charm to the 
informality of the gatherings. Indeed, the attractive- 
ness of the youngest, Henriette, proved irresistible to 
the Baron Henry Dominick Lallemand, and in the 
year 1817 she consented to become his wife, the 
ceremony being performed October 20th, 1 8 17, at St. 
Augustine's Roman Catholic Church, on Crown Street 
above Race, 2 M. le Marechal Grouchy being a witness. 
" The Count," as the ex-King Joseph was usually 
called, having built his house in the magnificent park 
at Bordentown, N. J., and having constituted Girard 
his banker, was in the habit of coming to Philadel- 
phia frequently, almost invariably calling at Girard's 
house, where, if the latter was not at home, he would 

1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. 

2 Records of St. Augustine's Church, Vol. I, p. 33. 



! ~ Q LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

sit awhile in the public counting-house, conversing 
very affably with the head clerk, and occasionally 
with the apprentices. On one occasion, one or two 
of the more discreet of these latter were notified to 
remain after the close of the usual business hours, 
and far on toward morning a heavy wagon, bearing 
several large boxes, and conducted by three or four 
men, drove up to the counting-house door. The 
boxes, which were extremely weighty, were deposited 
with care in the fire-proof storehouses, where they 
were watched by the men concerned in their arrival, 
until the opening of the Bank on the following day 
permitted their removal to its vaults. The contents 
of these boxes, which were carefully sealed with wax, 
was hinted at by no one, but after some days it leaked 
out to those in the counting-room, perhaps through 
the medium of Roberjot, that they were actually the 
receptacles of the crown jewels of the Kingdom of 
France. When or how they were returned there 
remains a mystery, but it is probable that this report 
was at least partially erroneous, it being more likely 
that if the boxes really contained such articles, they 
were rather the jewels of Naples or of Spain, which, 
having once been in the possession of Joseph Buona- 
parte, were most likely to have been the ones in 
question. 

It will be remarked that upon this, as upon many 
other occasions, Girard reposed a trust in certain of 



LIFE OF STEPHEN' GIRARD. ! ,j 

his apprentices that was, to say the least, unusual ; 
but his judgment in this respect was so accurate 
that he rarely had occasion to regret his confidence. 
He entrusted certain of them, notably William 
Wagner and Meredith Calhoun, with business opera- 
tions of the most responsible character, and, in 
general, had a full quota of them on his farm, in his 
counting-house, and upon his ships. They were 
invariably the sons of gentlemen or retired mer- 
chants, and were slnt on long voyages as super- 
cargoes, thus enabling them to gain a handsome 
remuneration through commissions on purchases and 
sales of his rich Eastern cargoes. 1 All of them 
entered his service free of charge, this exception to 
the general rule of apprenticeships having been made 
on account of friendship for their fathers, and, beside 
being carefully taught and supervised, they had the 
advantage of seeing the world and mingling with 
men of business under the patronage and protection 

1 An incomplete list of Girard's apprentices is as follows : 

(a) Martin Bickham, ^ R ic hard Taylor, 

(6) Meredith Calhoun, ^) Lo uis Vanuxem, 

(c) John Charnock, (k) William Wagner, 

(d) John Grelaud, (/) Samuel Wagner 

(e) Mahlon Hutchinson, (J) J h n Warder. 

(See Professor William Wagner's Lecture I.) Martin and George Bickham settled 
in the Isle of Mauritius, Martin afterward becoming American Consul there and re- 
I turning to America with a moderate fortune. Many of these apprentices are ances- 
tors of well-known Philadelphians of to-day. Professor William Wagner is the sole 
1 apprentice now living (1884), the fortune he has accumulated during a long life-time 
1 being devoted to the founding of the " Wagner Free Institute of Science " in Phila- 
delphia. 



j. 2 LIFE OF STEFHEA GIRARD. 

of one whose mercantile fame had spread to the four 
quarters of the globe. The sole conditions exacted 
in return were good behavior and implicit obedience 
of orders, the rigidity with which the former was 
demanded being well set out in the following extract 
from a letter to Captain Bowen, of his ship Voltaire, 
about to sail for Canton, in 1815 : 

" I desire you not to permit a drunken or immoral 
man to remain on board of your ship. Whenever 
such a man makes disturbance,* or is disagreeable 
to the rest of the crew, no matter who he is, 
discharge him whenever you have the opportu- 
nity. And if any of my apprentices should not con- 
duct themselves properly, I authorize you to correct 
them as I would myself, my intention being that they 
shall learn their business, so after they are free they 
may be useful to themselves and to their country.' 1 1 

Girard was equally inflexible in requiring a minute 
obedience to the concise directions for every emer- 
gency which he invariably furnished. " Break 
owners, not orders," was the maxim of his service, 
and the rule was strictly enforced, as was illustrated 
in the case of a young supercargo sent to the Red 
Sea. This young apprentice was to have gone 
first to London, then to Amsterdam, and so from port 
to port, selling and buying, until at last he was 
to go to Mocha, buy coffee, and immediately return 
to Philadelphia. 

1 Arey, p. 17. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. l ~ * 

" At London, however, the young fellow was 
charged by the Barings not to go to Mocha, or 
he would fall into the hands of pirates. At Amster- 
dam they told him the same thing. Everywhere 
the caution was repeated ; but he sailed on until he 
came to the last port before Mocha. Here he was 
consigned to a merchant who had been an apprentice 
to Girard in Philadelphia — for this happened when 
Girard was an old and rich man — and he, too, told 
him he must not dare venture near the Red Sea. 
The supercargo was now in a dilemma. On one side 
was his master's order; on the other, two vessels, 
a valuable cargo, a large amount of money." The 
merchant knew Girard's peculiarities as well as did 
the supercargo, but he thought the rule of the 
service might for once be governed by discretion. 
"' You'll not only lose all you have made,' he said, 
' but you'll never go home to justify yourself.' The 
young man reflected. After all, the object of his 
voyages was to get coffee, and there was no danger 
in going to Java, so he turned his prow, and away he 
sailed to the Chinese seas. He bought coffee at four 
dollars a sack and sold it in Amsterdam at a most 
enormous advance, and then went back to Phila- 
delphia in good order, with large profits, sure of 
approval. Soon after he entered the counting-room 
Girard came in;" he looked at the young fellow, 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

neither greeting, welcoming, nor congratulating him, 
but after a moment, shaking his angry hand, he sim- 
ply said: " What for did you not go to Mocha, sir?" 
and turned his back, utterly ignoring the explanation. 1 
But no more was ever said upon the subject, for he 
never scolded his apprentices, his opinion of an 
employe being expressed by cutting down a salary, 
or, if matters had gone so far that this was not suffi- 
cient, by the offender's summary dismissal. He had 
no patience with incompetence, and neither time nor 
the desire to educate people generally in business 
habits. Each man felt he was watched, and so long 
as he did his best, and his best suited, he was confi- 
dent of the most impartial justice. Honesty, sober- 
ness, and punctuality were exacted, and no plans 
were suffered to be thwarted by independence on the 
part of subordinates. They were enjoined at the out- 
set to leave business in the office, so no one of them 
gossiped to his friends over Girard's affairs, and the 
secrecy of his operations was secured by the habit 
of entrusting a matter of business to the smallest 
number of persons that could properly perform it. 2 

Several anecdotes are told which illustrate his 
method of rebuking his employes one of which is 
that of an apprentice who, in making up an account, 
credited a tanner with three hundred dollars more 

1 Louise Stockton, The Continent, June 20th, 1883, p. 774, et seq. 

2 Louise Stockton, supra. Prof, sser William Wagner, Lecture II 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j ^5 

than he was entitled to. Having drawn a check for 
that amount, he forwarded it with the account to the 
creditor, who, at once discovering the mistake, re- 
turned the letter and enclosures to Girard. The latter 
said nothing to the apprentice, but contented himself 
with silently laying the letter and check upon the 
former's desk, where it was discovered by him the 
morning after the occurrence, this being the only 
reproof the act of carelessness ever received. On 
another occasion, small sums of money having been 
missed from the counting-house, the errand boy was 
suspected of the thefts, and being watched, was at 
last caught in the act. Instead of the severe punish- 
ment which might naturally have been expected to 
follow, however, Girard merely directed that a new 
and more intricate lock should be obtained for the 
money-drawer, and this being accordingly done, the 
matter was passed by without further comment. 
Girard probably felt that the remorse shown by the 
lad was a sufficient token of his repentance, but it was 
such acts of judicious forbearance toward his em- 
ployes; at times when they were undoubtedly derelict, 
that implanted in the bosoms of the better of them 
such personal admiration and regard as grew in 
time almost to veneration. 

Another incident, not exactly in line with those 
just narrated, hinges upon the ungoverned temper of 

l Related by Professor William Wagner 01 Limsell. 



! ^6 LIFE 0F STEPHEN GIRARD. 

Girard's future malevolent biographer, Stephen Simp- 
son, and was undoubtedly a potent cause of the 
malice that individual so freely displayed in his mis- 
called Biography of Stephen Girard. This work, 
which was published in 1832, 1 immediately after 
Girard's death, was the first attempt to give the 
general public a history of the life of their benefac- 
tor, and, notwithstanding many glaring absurdities, 
contains sufficient truth to have naturally formed the 
chief authority for the majority of subsequent 
sketches. In view, therefore, of the willful manner in 
which many facts have therein been distorted, the 
present writer considers it justifiable to rescue from 
oblivion an anecdote which, while displaying one rea- 
son for the author's resentment, at the same time 
forcibly illustrates Girard's peculiar method of deal- 
ing with unruly subordinates. 

Upon one occasion, Simpson, having assaulted, 
without provocation, a fellow-bookkeeper named 
Joseph Clay, injured him so severely about the head 
that his victim was unable to leave the house for 
more than a week. The attack having been made in 
the Bank during business hours, and knowing how 
unjustifiable his action had been, Simpson naturally 
feared that he would infallibly be dismissed as soon as 
the matter was brought to Girard's notice. His sur- 

1 Biography of Stephen Girard. By Stephen Simpson, Philadelphia, 1832. Re- 
print King & Baird, 607 Sansom Street, 1867. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j <, y 

prise was very great, therefore, to find the day pass by 
without any attention having apparently been given 
to his outrageous conduct, but when the following 
morning arrived, a letter from Girard was laid upon 
his desk, curtly announcing that thenceforth his salary 
was reduced from fifteen hundred to one thousand 
dollars per annum. " On receipt of the note Simp- 
son's temper knew no bounds, and I do not entertain 
a doubt that from that moment he determined to be 
revenged upon Mr. Girard for having dared to so pun- 
ish and humiliate him." % But, necessity compelling 
him to accept the reduced salary, " he had to bide his 
time, awaiting an opportunity, and when this was fur- 
nished in the death of his benefactor, 2 his ingenuity 
*(and hope that the work might be profitable) sug- 
gested the abominable method of retaliation he 
adopted." 3 

It is but just to say that the work bears upon every 
page evidence of its hasty and unrevised preparation, 
and it is possible, therefore, that had the author not 
been pressed for time he might have stricken out the 
painfully prominent evidences of his malicious pur- 
pose. But this was never done, and the work re- 
mains in its original shape, a monument of its author's 

1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture IV. 

2 Simpson himself admits (p. 123) that, having become a bankrupt, he was forced 
to rely upon Girard for employment. 

8 Professor William Wagner, Lectures II and IV. 



i 58 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



ingratitude, which, one is compelled to believe, sober 
second thought would never have contented him to 
leave as the only memorial in the world that one of 
his name ever existed. 

Girard's memory for facts, places, and business 
events was most' remarkable. On one occasion he 
greatly surprised one of his apprentices * by guessing 
within one hundred thousand dollars, and without re- 
ferring to his books, the exact state_jpf his account 
with Messrs. Baring Bros. & Co., of London. The 
amount then due him was two millions and a quarter, 
and the account covered a period of two years, during 
which it had fluctuated by millions, 2 but it was evi- 
dent Girard had closely followed each one of the 
transactions, and further, that he carried in his mind ' 
at all times a very approximate estimate of the con- 
dition of his ventures. He was himself well aware of 
his superiority in this respect, and was consequently 
extraordinarily careful in making promises to be per- 
formed in the future, for he never forgot any obliga- 
tion he had entered into, and what he once bound 
himself to do he never after sought a pretext to evade 
or violate. 3 He seemed but imperfectly to realize the* 
inferiority of memory of many of his neighbors, for 
he often lent large sums of money to his business 

1 Told by Professor William Wngner of himself. 

i Professor William Wagner, Lecture II. 3 Simpson, p. 139. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j ng 

acquaintances without interest or note, and upon the 
mere exchange of checks, on one occasion, in the 
case of a Frenchman named Montmollin, the loan 
having amounted to ten thousand dollars. 1 Nor was 
his mental activity confined solely to business affairs. 
He read with close attention the works of the Voltair- 
ean school of philosophers, and his native wit, sharp- 
ened by this active course of training, often stood him 
in excellent stead. It is related that the banker, 
Ridgway, the father of Madame Rush, having once 
lost his temper with Girard, exclaimed, pettishly, 
" Friend Girard, thee assumes too much pride in thy 
dealings ; I can both buy thee and sell thee," but was 
quite unprepared for the retort that flashed instantly 
from the lips of his ready antagonist : " And I, 
Friend Ridgway, can buy thee, and keep thee f 

The course of reading mentioned above has been 
imagined by many to indicate a degree of irreligion 
upon Girard's part, and this erroneous supposition 
was further fixed in the public mind by the clause in 
his will forbidding ministers or priests of any sect 
whatsoever, to either hold office in, or be admitted as 
visitors to, his college. 2 As a matter of fact, however, 
he was far from either irreligious or atheistic, having 
been baptized in the Roman Catholic Church, in 
which denomination he died, although he did not 

1 Professor William Wagner, Lec.urc II. £ Will, Art. XXI, £9. 



I 40 L1FE 0F STEPHEN GIRARD. 

attend its services for some time prior to his death, 
and having many times refused to sever his connec- 
tion with that Church, though often urgently solicited. 
He paid for, and on more than one occasion is known 
to have occupied, a pew in St. Augustine's Roman 
Catholic Church, on Crown Street above Race, where 
the members of his family attended service, and from 
which two of his nieces were married. Each one of 
his apprentices was expected to go to his particular 
church regularly every Sunday, and this rule was 
enforced without exceptions, save in the case of actual 
illness. 1 He gave liberally and impartially to all 
religious denominations worthy of such assistance, 
and in the government of his private life endeavored 
to observe the strictest moral law, in this succeeding 
doubtless as well as commonly falls to the lot of indi- 
vidual mankind. Following the custom of his native 
land, his day of recreation was Sunday, on which day 
he usually dined some friends at two o'clock in the 
afternoon, notably, as has been mentioned above, 
Joseph Buonaparte, Comte de Survilliers and ex-King 
of Spain and Naples, and his gentlemen. 2 

But though he never formally separated himself from 
the Church in which he was born, there is no doubt 
that his opinions underwent a very great change when 
brought in contact with members of the " Society of 

1 Professor W ill i mi Wagner, Lecture IT. 

2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V ; also see page 127, supra. 






LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



141 



Friends" in Philadelphia, the purity of whose life and 
the simplicity of whose religious faith acted power* 




THE CHAPEL. 



fully upon a mind readily susceptible to the virtues 
these external evidences made manifest. He did r.ot 



l4 2 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

hesitate to openly model his life in a great degree 
after their pattern, and not only felt the greatest 
regard for their tenets, but very warmly expressed his 
admiration of them as a body in a manner whos » 
sincerity cannot be doubted. 

Realizing, therefore, in his own case, the difficulty 
of choosing between the various religious denomina- 
tions, he inferred, either rightly or wrongly, that a 
similar choice was not one to be put upon the tender 
mind of an infant ; and his College being destined for 
all orphaned children, irrespective of what had been 
the creed of their deceased parents, it was evident that 
it must perforce itself be free from any sectarian bias. 
Nor would he tolerate that his intention that each 
orphan should be in a position to choose for himself, 
when arrived at years of discretion, should be de- 
feated through the efforts of zealous visitors, who 
might conceive their duty directed the attempt to 
make converts ; and the surest method of securing 
this intention being the exclusion, as far as possible, 
of every person who might be likely to attempt such 
a thing, there was naturally suggested the regulation 
which has attracted such universal attention. 

The directions in the will upon this subject are as 
follows : " I enjoin and require that no ecclesiastic, 
missionary, or minister of any sect whatsoever, shall 
ever hold or exercise any station or duty whatever 
in the said College ; nor shall any such person ever be 






LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. ^ 

admitted for any purpose, or as a visitor, within the 
premises appropriated to the purposes of the said 
College. In making this restriction I do not mean to 
cast any reflection upon any sect or person whatso- 
ever; but as there is such a multitude of sects, and 
such a diversity of opinion amongst them, I desire 
to keep the tender minds of the orphans, who are to 
derive advantage from this bequest, free from the ex- 
citement which clashing doctrines and sectarian 
controversy are so apt to produce. My desire is, that 
all the instructors and teachers in the College shall 
take pains to instill into the minds of the scholars the 
purest principles of morality, so that on their entrance 
into active life they may, from inclination and habit, 
evince benevolence toward their fellow-creatures, and 
a love of truth, sobriety, and industry, adopting at 
the same time such religious tenets as their matured 
reason may enable them to prefer," * 

It will be evident from this passage, as from 
the general tenor of Girard's life, that his habits of 
thought differed widely from those of his fellows ; 
and it is perhaps not very surprising, since the latter 
failed to comprehend these, that they failed also 
to understand what the object w T as that he kept con- 
stantly before him as the single aim of his existence. 

" Steady, persevering, and judicious in the pursuit 
of wealth, he seemed to those who could not penetrate 

i Will, Art. XXI, §9. 



!44 LIFE 0F STEFHEN GIRARD. 

his hidden motives to covet it for its own sake and to 
labor for no other purpose than to see his hoards and 
investments increase. The simple and economic 
modes of life that permitted the accumulation of the 
gains on which the superstructure of his fortune was 
built, remained comparatively unchanged when he 
was able to count his ships by squadrons, his 
mansions by scores, and his moneyed capital by mil- 
lions. In a country where, perhaps more than in any 
other, wealth seems to be chiefly desired for the eclat 
which its elegant expenditure furnishes, the character 
of Girard remained an enigma. It was even more 
inscrutable to those who saw him more nearly 
than others, and were aware that to an attention 
to business and a strict economy was added benevo- 
lence of an active description, that shunned no per- 
sonal exertion or sacrifice." 1 

But to his biographers, who, having his whole life 
spread before them, are supposed to have given the 
subject an attention impossible to his fellow-citizens, 
the error of the supposition that his aim was the 
mere accumulation of wealth should have been 
unmistakably apparent at the outset. Indeed, to one 
of these it seems to have been so. " It was not the 
love of money," says this latter historian, " that kept 
him at work early and late to the last days of 
his life," and having come thus close upon the truth, 
the author unfortunately halts at the very verge of 
discovery, dismissing the subject with the more gen- 

1 American Quarterly Review, Vol. XIII, pp. 144 and 145. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 145 

erous solution that GirarcTs chief object was forgetful- 
ness of " early disappointments " and the unhappy 
chapter of his marriage. 1 He supports this latter 
conclusion apparently quite strongly by two quota- 
tions from letters of Girard's, the first of which is as 
follows : " When I rise in the morning my only 
effort is to labor so hard during the day that when 
night comes I may be enabled to sleep soundly," in 
which sentence the author mentioned sees " a vista of 
disappointed hopes and broken ties " and of " misery 
in the midst of millions," which, as being the sincere 
opinion of a remarkably fair writer, is entitled to con- 
sideration. 2 

But let us see whether this construction is war- 
ranted by the facts of Girard's life. There is no 
known time when this remarkable man did not labor 
with the utmost assiduity. Leaving home when but 
fourteen years old, he commenced then a life whose 
whole course is well expressed in the sentence quoted, 
and the same argument applies with equal force 
against the inference from the second quotation, which 
latter is taken from a letter written by Girard in 1804 
to his friend Duplessis, in New Orleans. 

This second passage is : " I observe with pleasure 
that you have a numerous family, that you are happy 
and in the possession of an honest fortune. This is 

1 Arey, p. 23, quoted bv P^ton, p. 239. 

2 Arey, p. 24. 



I4 6 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

all that a wise man has the right to wish for. As to 
myself, I live like a galley-slave, constantly occupied, 
and often passing the night without sleep. I am 
wrapped up in a labyrinth of affairs, and worn out 
with care. I do not value fortune. The love of labor 
is my highest ambition. You perceive that your situ- 
ation is a thousand times preferable to mine. 1 

It cannot be denied that upon casual consideration 
this quotation seems to indicate something of the dis- 
appointment hinted at by the author, but the present 
writer believes, nevertheless, that a closer examination 
will prove it a very unsubstantial basis upon which to 
rest the theory that the single motive of Girard's life 
was a desire to forget. It is not intended to suggest 
that at that particular period Girard, childless at 
nearly sixty years of age, may not have felt his lack 
of issue bear heavily upon his spirits ; and the sad- 
ness of this reflection, coupled with the tinge of mel- 
ancholy natural to advancing age, is quite sufficient 
to account for such tone of regret as the author 
imagines the letter unconsciously discloses. But in 
drawing from his quotations the inference that " the 
belief in childhood that he had not been given his 
share of the love and kindness that had been ex- 
tended to others," was a fundamental motive in 
Girard's life, a life remarkable for its singleness of 

1 Letter to Duplessis, quoted by Arey, p. 25, also quoted by Parton, p. 239. 






LIFE OF STEPHEN GJRARD. j^y 

purpose, the author ascribes an importance to youth- 
ful troubles that it is not believed experience will 
warrant. The present writer cannot adopt the 
opinion that such troubles form sufficient inducement 
to lead a lad but fourteen years old to adopt a life of 
labor in search of forgetfulness, and while these 
" early disappointments " did undoubtedly, as has 
been hereinbefore shown, furnish the controlling 
motive turning his life into a particular channel, it is 
not believed that they proved of such permanent 
character as to govern his existence for any consider- 
able length of time. Indeed, that they did not prove 
of lasting force is shown by the fact that notwithstand- 
ing his undeniable dislike for his stepmother, Girard 
frequently revisited his home during the nine years 
following his first departure from Bordeaux, 1 and also 
that he corresponded with his brother Jean [de Mom- 
brun] during the whole of the latter's life ; that he 
sent to France for his nephews, sons of his brother 
Etienne, educating and caring for them for years ; 2 
that he corresponded more or less irregularly with 
his father 3 and with his brother Etienne ; 4 and lastly, 
that all his relatives were individually left legacies in 
his will. 

It would seem that these facts should be further 
sufficient to disprove the author's additional statement 

1 Ante, p. 28. 2 Post, p. 149. s Ante, pp. 40, 41. 4 Post, p. i$Q. 



I4 8 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

that Girard was " alienated from his home, his parents, 
and his friends," but after suggesting that it is absurd 
to attach importance to such juvenile friendships as 
Girard forsook upon leaving home at that early age, 
the present writer is happily able to produce in refu- 
tation of the remainder of the statement evidence 
apparently not at the former biographer's disposal. 
This is the sworn testimony taken in France, Septem- 
ber 8th, 1839, under a commission from the United 
States Circuit Court for the Eastern District of 
Pennsylvania, to be used in a suit brought by one of 
the heirs of Girard against the city of Philadelphia, 
trustees under his will, 1 the most applicable parts 
of which testimony are as follows : 

(i.) The fifth witness called, M. Choury, attorney- 
at-law, residing at Perigueux, testified, among other 
things : 

" It is publicly notorious in the city of Perigueux 
and in the province, where the family of Girard origi- 
nated, that Stephen Girard, who died in Philadelphia, 
had left his country very young, engaged in the 
French marine. That he had constant relations with 
his relatives in France, and in particular with his 
brother, Etienne Girard. That after having acquired 
the considerable fortune he possessed, he had called 

1 Vidal vs. The Mayor, etc , of Philadelphia. See transcript of the Records of 
the U. S. Supreme Court, No. 22, Vol. It, page 85, of transcript, and page 120 of 
case. 



LIFE OF STEPHEN G1RARD. I4 g 

to him the two male children of his brother Etienne. 
That he had taken care of their education, and had 
given them those proofs of affection which they nat- 
urally deserve for their qualities and for their name." 

(2.) The sixth witness called, Barthelmy Michellet, 
President of the Tribunal of Commerce of Perigueux, 
confirmed the preceding, and added : " All the 
inhabitants of this city know that the late Stephen 
Girard, of Philadelphia, had entertained for his brother 
Etienne and his children a particular affection. That he 
had called to him the only two male children of his 
brother Etienne ; that he had taken care of their 
education, and it was thought that he destined them 
to continue the immense affairs to which he had 
initiated them from their infancy, in which direction 
of affairs he caused them to act as his clerks." 

And (3.) The seventh witness called, Jean Baptiste 
Vidal, M. D., formerly Mayor of the city of Peri- 
gueux, beside additionally testifying to the above 
statements, added : " During the fifteen years that I 
performed the duties of Mayor of the city of Peri-, 
gueux, I received in that capacity a letter from Mr. 
Stephen Girard, of Philadelphia, who informed me of 
his prosperous condition, and asked me information 
respecting his brother Etienne, who resided in Peri- 
gueux, who his family consisted of, and what were his 
means of existence. He manifested to me his inten- 



!50 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

tion of sharing with him and his children the favors 
which Fortune had so abundantly heaped upon him. 
At his request I communicated his letter to Etienne 
Girard. I answered Mr. Stephen Girard's letter, and 
a correspondence was established between the two 
brothers. Etienne Girard was the father of many 
children. He had eight children. His fortune was 
inconsiderable. I knew that in some instances, Mr. 
Stephen Girard sent to his brother and his wife some 
amounts of money. * * * * I have known 
particularly the relations entertained between the two 
brothers. They were of a reciprocal good-will!' 

The writer regards the above evidence as suffi- 
ciently refuting the idea of Girard's alienation from 
his family ; such interruption of intercourse as really 
took place being undoubtedly rather the effect of dis- 
tance and the imperfect intercommunication of the 
day than of design ; and considering the question of 
" early disappointments " thus disposed of, there 
remains the supposition that Girard's desire to forget 
the painful chapter of his later married life, was the 
secret of his assiduous devotion to labor. But apart 
from the fact that his industry was quite as marked 
before as after that epoch, it should be remembered 
that his wife's affliction was preceded by eight years of 
happy and contented companionship with him, which 
he could scarcely have wished to forget ; and in addi' 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j 5 j 

tion, the writer has endeavored to show that while he 
mourned deeply and sincerely the terrible misfortune 
which had made him at once childless and worse 
than wifeless, his affection for the partner of his life 
had, happily, been of such character that he had no 
cause of regret as for a duty unperformed. There is, 
therefore, a most prominent lack of foundation in 
both the reasons, to wit, alienation from his friends 
and family and a desire to forget unhappiness, which 
have been advanced to explain the motive of Girard's 
untiring energy, a misconception on the part of the 
author referred to, all the more surprising in view of 
the closeness with which he has approached the true 
explanation. 

What then was this great and overmastering 
impulse, that dominated the whole course of Girard's 
life and governed every act of his remarkable career ? 
If his labor was not. an endeavor to subtract some- 
thing from his condition, what was the object that he 
sought to add ? 

The first definite hint of his purpose is found in a 
letter sent him from Cape Frangois, Santo Domingo, 
by his brother Jean [de Mombrun], in which occurs 
the following passage : " I have just received yours 
of the 30th and 31st of October. It is really laugh- 
able to ask me for a method by which you can make 
some money. You will always be the same, never 



152 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



content. I dare even say you are not satisfied with 
this last voyage with the brig, which will certainly yield 
at least fifty-five thousand pounds profit. * * * * 
Therefore, since / am not so ambitious as you, it you 
are not pleased with our management of your busi- 
ness, put it in the hands of whomsoever may seem 
good to you, we will always remain friends." 1 

It is in this italicized phrase that is first given voice 
the great passion that kept Girard at work not only 
" early and late," but from his very boyhood down to 
the last hours of a life pre-eminently crowned with its 
triumph. " If we were to specify the prominent point 
of his character," writes a discerning memorialist 
shortly after his decease, " we should mention a 
feature that would perhaps be the last that was sup- 
posed to belong to this individual — ambition. He 
sought money not from avarice, but from a desire for 
power. Money was the only avenue by which he 
could obtain the eminence that he coveted, not money 
to be dissipated in rich salons and splendid 
equipages and liveried servants bearing his badge, 
but wealth to be exercised as the Archimedean lever 
by which he could move the fiscal world. The desire 
of this, as the means of influence, was the master 
spirit which conquered his soul." 2 " My deeds must 
be my life. When I am dead my actions must speak 



1 Letter of 25th of November, 1784. 

2 Anonymous article in Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, Vol. IV, p. 367. 






LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



153 



for me," was his reply to captious critics or inquisi- 
tive impertinence, 1 and the fire of his ambition burned 
so clear that kindred flames were stirred in the 
bosoms of those nearest to him. ''The force with 
which I work is annihilating me," writes his brother ; 
" I feel my strength abandoning me, so that, unless I 
adopt some remedy, I see my days wasting away 
in the pains and torments of the ambition you have 
aroused in me ;" 2 and, again : " I do not hesitate 
to say, my brother, that I see with regret my 
days vanish without pleasure or satisfaction, on the 
contrary, tormented by the ambition you have 
waked." 3 

But the wish for money as a means of influence 
was a master-spirit modified by a secondary motive in 
his character, which, though it had always existed, 
had yet lain comparatively dormant until financial 
power enabled him to make its influence felt. 
The purpose for which he coveted the eminence 
at last attained was one quite to be expected from 
a native of Bordeaux, the Utopian aspirations of 
whose people for a voice in public affairs for 
many years rendered her name synonymous with 
Revolution. Born among and spending the whole of 

his young manhood amid principles of political ascet- 
ic Said by Girard to Simpson. — Professor William Wagner, Lecture III. Also, see 
American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, 12th January, 1832. 

2 Letters of Jean (de Mombrun), 8th March, 1787. 

3 Letters of Jean (de Mombrun), 17th March, 1787. 



£54 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 

icism, the entire life of Girard shows how.thoroughly 
he had become imbued with their spirit. Simplicity 
of private life, coupled with untiring industry; a 
Cincinnatus-like readiness to sacrifice private interests 
for those of a State which would secure the indi- 
vidual's liberty in the pursuit of happiness ; in short, 
the perfect example of a law-abiding citizen was 
the ideal of Girard's aspiration and the sole tradition 
he desired to leave surviving him. The long steps 
by which he built up the largest fortune of his 
day bear each one the stamp of the probity and 
integrity that was to be afterward unassailable. His 
fortune once acquired — the character of a fearless, 
patriotic, and, withal, humane citizen once established, 
he built a marble monument on such unheard-of 
scale and for such benevolent purpose that posterity's 
attention must perforce be challenged to regard 
its founder, a consistent purpose of whose life 
had been to preserve the character that could alone 
sustain such close inspection. 

His great ambition, then, was. first, success ; and this 
attained, the longing of mankind to leave a shining 
memory merged his purpose in the establishment of 
what was to him that fairest of Utopias- — the simple 
tradition of a citizen. A citizen whose public duties 
ended not with the State, and whose benefactions were 
not limited to the rescue or advancement of its 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j^ 

interests, alone, but whose charities broadened beyond 
the limits of duty or the boundaries of an individual 
life, to stretch over long reaches of the future, enrich- 
ing thousands of poor children in his beloved city 
yet unborn. His life shows clearly why he worked, 
as his death showed clearly the fixed object of his 
labor in acquisition. " While he was forward with an 
apparent disregard of self, to expose his life in behalf 
of others in the midst of pestilence, to aid the internal 
improvements of the country, and to promote its 
commercial prosperity by all the means within his 
power, he yet had more ambitious designs. He 
wished to hand himself down to immortality by the 
only mode that was practicable for a man in his 
position, and he accomplished precisely that which 
was the grand aim of his life. He wrote his epitaph 
in those extensive and magnificent blocks and squares 
which ado/n the streets of his adopted city, in the 
public works and eleemosynary establishments of 
his adopted State, and erected his own monument, 
and embodied his own principles in a marble-roofed 
palace." * 

" Yet, splendid as is the structure which stands 
above his remains, the most perfect model of archi- 
tecture in the New World, it yields in beauty to the 
moral monument. The benefactor sleeps among the 

i Hunfs Merchant's Magazine, Vol. IV, p. 371. 



1 5 6 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 



orpnan poor whom his bounty is constantly rearing. 
Thus, forever present, unseen but felt, he daily 
stretches forth his invisible hands to lead some friend- 
less child from ignorance and vice to usefulness and 
perhaps distinction. And when, in the fullness of 
time, many homes have been made happy, many 
orphans have been fed, clothed, and educated, and 
many men rendered useful to their country and them- 
selves, each happy home, or rescued child, or useful 
citizen, will be a living monument to perpetuate the 
name and embalm the memory of the dead ' Mariner 
ana Merchant.' " l 

J Arey, pp. 5 and 6. 





OUTSIDE THE GATES. 



APPENDIX. 1 



THE estate of Stephen Girard amounted, at the 
time of his decease, to about seven millions five 
hundred thousands of dollars. It was the greatest for- 
tune known in America at that day, and was surpassed 
by few, if by any of the private fortunes abroad. One 
hundred and forty thousand dollars of this was 
bequeathed to members of his family; sixty-five 

1 Mainly condensed from Arey, and from the report of the architect of the Girard 
College See Journal of the Franklin Institute, Vol. XXI, p. 354, and Vols XXII 
and XXIII (New Series). 

The writer is also desirous of acknowledging his indebtedness to A. H. Fetteroli, 
Ph. D., President of Girard College, for information respecting the government 01 
the Institution. 

157 



g APPENDIX. 

thousand as a principal sum for the payment of annu- 
ities to certain friends and former employes; one 
hundred and sixteen thousand to various Philadelphia 
charities ; five hundred thousand to the city of Phila- 
delphia, for the improvement of its Delaware water- 
front ; three hundred thousand to the State of Penn- 
sylvania, for the prosecution of internal improvements, 
and an indefinite sum in various legacies to appren- 
tices, sea-captains, who should bring his vessels in 
their charge safely to port, and to house-servants. He 
devised to the cities of New Orleans and Philadelphia 
two hundred and eighty thousand acres of land in 
Ouachita Township, State of Louisiana (subsequently 
lost to the legatees by a decision of the United States 
Supreme Court), and all the rest, residue and remain- 
der of his estate he devised in trust to the city of 
Philadelphia for the following purposes: (i) To 
erect, improve, and maintain a College for poor, 
white, orphan boys ; (2) To establish a better police 
system ; and (3) To improve the city of Philadelphia, 
and diminish taxation. This residuary fund has since 
enormously increased, having grown to more than 
fifteen millions of dollars, yielding [1891] about one 
million uve hundred thousand dollars gross yearly 
revenue. 

The sum of two millions of dollars was set apart by 
his will for the expense of construction of the Col- 



APPENDIX. j eg 

lege, and as soon as was practicable the executors 
appropriated certain securities, to that amount, for the 
purpose. Heavy depreciation in their value during 
the construction of the buildings, however, compelled 
recourse to be had to the residuary fund intended for 
the maintenance of the College, in order to insure 
their completion, the actual outlay for erection and 
finishing of the edifice being one million nine hun- 
dred and thirty-three thousand eight hundred and 
twenty-one dollars and seventy-eight cents ($1,933,- 
821.78). Excavation was commenced May 6th, 1833, 
the corner-stone being laid with ceremonies on the 
Fourth of July following, and the completed buildings 
were transferred to the Board of Directors on the 13th 
of November, 1847. There was thus occupied in 
construction a period of fourteen years and six months, 
the work being somewhat delayed by reason of suits 
brought by the heirs of Girard against the estate. 
The design adopted was substantially that furnished by 
Thomas U. Walters, an architect elected by the 
Board of Directors after the rejection of advertised- 
for competing plans. Some modifications were 
rendered advisable by the change of site directed in 
the second codicil of Girard's will, the original pur- 
pose having been to occupy the square bounded by 
Eleventh, Chestnut, Twelfth, and Market Streets, in 
the heart of the city of Philadelphia. But Girard 



j 6q APPENDIX. 

having, subsequently to the first draft of his will, 
purchased for thirty-five thousand dollars ] the Wil- 
liam Parker farm of forty-five acres, on the Ridge 
Road, known as the " Peel Hall Estate," he directed 
that the site of his College should be transferred 
to that locality, and commenced the erection of 
stores and dwellings upon the former plot of ground, 
which dwellings and stores form part of his resi- 
duary estate. 

The College proper closely resembles in design a 
Greek temple in white marble, the material for the 
construction of which was chiefly obtained from 
quarries in Montgomery and Chester Counties, Penn- 
sylvania, and at Egremont, Massachusetts. A broad 
platform, approached on every side by eleven marble 
steps, supports the main body of the building, and its 
surrounding colonnade of thirty-four Corinthian col- 
umns, which latter aid in withstanding the thrust of 
the massive arches which support the marble roof 
The building measures one hundred and fifty-two feet 
in width, and two hundred and two feet in length on the 
ground, and is ninety-seven feet in height. The columns 
are six feet in diameter and fifty-five feet in height, the 
diameter of the corner columns being increased one 
and one-half inches in order to overcome the appa- 
rent reduction of size arising from their insulated 
position. The bases are nine feet three inches in 
diameter and three feet two inches high, and the capi- 

1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture II. 



APPENDIX. 



161 



tals are eight feet six inches high and nine feet four 
inches wide on the face of the abacus. Each shaft 
as well as the bases, consists of a single piece without 
vertical joints, the total weight of each column being 
one hundred and three tons and the cost twelve thou- 
sand nine hundred and ninety-four dollars. 

The roof is composed of marble tiles four feet and 
one-half long, four feet wide, and two and three-fourths 




THE LIBRARY — MAIN BUILDING. 

inches thick, the joints covered with a marble saddle 
hollowed on the under side to embrace ridges left on 
the edges of adjacent tiles. Each tile overlaps the one 
below six inches, and the under side is grooved and 
fitted to corresponding ridges and projections on the 
surface, thus preventing the admission of water from 
beating rains or capillary attraction. The tiles rest 



j62 appendix. 

on nine-inch brick walls. They are two thousand 
and forty-six in number, the aggregate weight of the 
roof being nine hundred and sixty-nine and one-half 
tons, exclusive of the brick walls supporting it. The 
gutters are of brick and flagstones, laid in hydraulic 
cement and covered with heavy milled lead. Every 
block of marble in the building is set on pieces of 
milled lead, in order to prevent fracture at the joints, 
and each stone is doweled into the stones above and 
below and at each end, and also securely cramped to 
the brick work and to the adjacent stones by means of 
heavy cramp irons. The ceiling of the peristyle is of 
cast iron, enriched wi.n deep sunken panels, and, with 
the balustrades and skylights, is the only portion of the 
building proper that is not of stone or brick. The 
floor of the peristyle is of white marble accurately 
jointed, and the thrust of the interior arches forming 
the roof and floors is taken up by five huge chains of 
wrought iron, completely encircling the cella and built 
into the masonry of its walls at various heights from 
the base. The building covers an area of thirty-four 
thousand three hundred and forty-four superficial feet, 
exclusive of the steps, the total weight being seventy- 
six thousand five hundred and ninety four and one- 
half tons, and the average weight resolved on each 
superficial foot of foundation being about six tons. 
The building is three stories in height, the first and 



APPENDIX. j Q^ 

second being twenty-five feet from floor to floor, and 
the third thirty feet in the clear to the eye of the 
dome, the doors of entrance being in the north and 
south fronts, and measuring sixteen feet in width and 
thirty-two in height. The walls of the cella are four 
feet in thickness, and are pierced on each flank by 
twenty windows. At each end of the building is a 
vestibule, extending across the whole width of the 
interior, the ceilings of which are supported on each 
story by eight columns, whose shafts are composed of 
a single stone. Those on the first floor are Ionic, 
from the temple on the Illusus, at Athens ; on 
the second, a modified Corinthian, from the Tower 
of Andronicus Cyrrhestes, also at Athens, and on 
the third, a similar modification of the Corinthian, 
somewhat lighter and more ornate. In each ves- 
tibule two flights of " geometric stairs " lead to 
the floor above, these stairs having one end of 
each step built into the wall, and the lower edge 
of each supported by the step below, thus doing 
away with the necessity of support for the outer 
end. The whole of these steps, columns, and floors 
is of white marble, the floor-tiles being accurately 
jointed to prevent loosening. Each floor is divided 
into four rooms, each fifty feet square, vaulted with 
brick, those of the first and second stories having 
groined arches, and those of the third story penden- 



1 64 



APPENDIX. 



tive domes springing from the floors. The reverber- 
ation of sound in these rooms caused by their arched 
ceiling is obviated by false ceilings of canvas 
stretched over a light wooden frame. 

The building, including the vestibules, the cellars, 
and the space under the exterior steps, is warmed by 
means of steam, and each room is ventilated by regis- 
ters, which open from near the ceiling into the main 
flues. 




INSIDE THE TECHNICAL .BUILDING. 

There are ten auxiliary buildings devoted to school- 
rooms, dormitories, etc., all of which, together with the 
handsome Gothic chapel, are built of white marble. 
The first four of these auxiliary buildings were con- 
structed under the directions of Girard's will, the 
others having been added from time to time as 
necessity arose. They are roofed with copper, slate, 
or tin, the stairways in the four original build- 



l6 g APPENDIX. 

ings being of marble, with wrought-iron balustrades, 
and those in the buildings subsequently added of iron 
and slate. There is also a " Technical Building," 
which, with the buildings designed for boiler-houses, 
laundries, and offices, is constructed of plainer stone 
in a thoroughly substantial manner. 

The purposes to which the auxiliary buildings are 
devoted, are as follows : 

To the east of the College building proper, auxiliary 
Building No. I, divided into four distinct dwelling* 
houses, contains the residences of the President, the 
Vice-President, certain of the professors, and of the 
teachers. 

Auxiliary Building No. 2, also situated east of the 
main building, contains " section " and school-rooms, 
prefects' room, linen-room, and dormitories. It has, 
besides, in common with every other building in the 
Institution containing dormitories, lavatories and a 
large swimming-pool in the basement. Each section- 
room throughout the College, it is worthy of remark, 
is provided with a library suited to the average age 
of the pupils to which it is devoted, and these section- 
rooms are further used by the boys when out of school 
for purposes of study and in-door recreation. 

West of the main building, the first object of interest, 
standing midway between it and Building No. 3, is the 
monument erected by the Board of Directors to the 



APPENDIX. 167 

memory of former Girard College boys killed in the 
War of the Rebellion. 

A life-sized soldier's figure, facing southward, finely 
wrought in marble, stands " at rest " beneath a canopy 
of Ohio sandstone. This canopy is supported by four 
columns of the same material rising from a sandstone 
base, which, in its turn, is supported by a sloping 
foundation of granite, overgrown with ivy. Tablets 
on each of the four sides of this base bear suitable 
inscriptions, that upon the southern front reading : 

Erected A. D. 1869, 

To Perpetuate and Record the Services 

of the 

Pupils of this College, 

who, 

In the Recent Contest 

for the 

Preservation of the American Union, 

died 

That their Country Might Live. 

"Fortunati omnes! Nulla dies umqiiam memori vos eximet aevo.''* 

That upon the north bears the following extract 
from Girard's will : 

" And Especially Do I Desire, That By Every 
Proper Means, A Pure Attachment to our Republican 
Institutions, And To The Sacred Rights Of Con- 
science, As Guaranteed By Our Happy Constitutions, 
Shall Be Formed And Fostered In The Minds Of 
The Scholars." 

The remaining two tablets bear the names of those 
who died in camp, hospital, prison, or in active 

* Fortunate, all ! No day shall e'er remove you from a mindful age. 



I (38 APPENDIX. 

service upon the battle-field, the names of the various 
battles being also recorded. 

The first building to the west of the College, aux- 
iliary Building No. 3, contains dormitories, school, 
prefects', servants' and store-rooms, and adjoins aux- 
iliary Building No. 4, which also contains dormitories, 
section, and seamstress' rooms, and in the basement 
of which is a room devoted to the College band and 
drum corps. Membership in this corps is highly ap- 
preciated by the scholars, those who display musical 
inclinations being given weekly instruction in band 
music by a competent teacher, with highly satisfactory 
results. 

The various offices of the President, Vice-President, 
and Steward are in auxiliary Building No. 5, which also 
contains dormitories, section, and linen-rooms, while 
Building No. 6, known as the Infirmary, contains the 
College medical headquarters, dispensary, dentist's, 
medicine, treatment, and sitting-rooms, with dormi- 
tories, a parlor, nurses', store, and linen-rooms. 

The most extensive of all the auxiliary build- 
ings, known as Building No. 7, was designed by 
a graduate of the College. It has a frontage of 
four hundred feet, containing over ninety rooms, 
including dormitories, section, school, and dining- 
rooms for the younger scholars ; matron's, assistant 
matron's, governess', teachers', seamstress', shoe- 







SOLDIERS' MONUMENT. 



1 68 



•i 



APPENDIX. j 6g 

blacking, and servants' rooms. It is immediately oppo- 
site and facing Building No. 8, which latter con- 
tains the main dining hall of the College, which will 
seat with ease more than one thousand persons, to- 
gether with the new kitchen, fitted up with improved 
ranges and steam cooking apparatus. The armory 
and drill-room of the College Cadet Corps is also in 





"NO LAGGARDS HERE!" 

this building, .the front part of which is devoted to 
dormitories, governess', and matron's rooms and 
parlors, the entire structure containing about fifty 
rooms. 

Auxiliary Building No. 9, adjoining, includes dormi- 
tories, section, school, governess', and seamstress' 
rooms, and, with Building No. 10, completes the list 



1 70 APPENDIX. 

of auxiliary buildings. This last, also designed by 
a former pupil of Girard College, was finished for 
occupancy in 1890, about one-half its cost having 
been defrayed by the bequest, with accumulations, of 
Lawrence Todd, of Illinois, which fact is set forth 
on a brass tablet at one of the entrances. The 
basement is intended for a play-room in wet weather, 
and the third floor contains two large rooms, one 
of which is fitted up as a hall for lectures to the 
scholars and for evening entertainments, the remainder 
being devoted entirely to school-rooms. 

In the year 1882, technical instruction w r as intro- 
duced in the College, and in the following year was 
erected the " Technical Building," which stands at the 
western end of the grounds. This building contains 
a foundry and is equipped with steam power and the 
necessary machinery and tools, and here all scholars 
of a certain grade are required to % spend five hours a 
week. Instruction is given in the use of both metal and 
wood-working tools, and there is included a depart- 
ment of mechanical drawing and of shoemaking, in 
which latter the scholars' shoes are mended and where 
many of them are also made. 

But the building which will attract most attention, 
after the main College edifice, is the beautiful Gothic 
chapel, erected in 1867. The exercises in this chapel, 
of an entirely non-sectarian character, are daily at- 






APPENDIX, j 7 j 

tended by officers and pupils, and consist of singing, 
reading the Scriptures, and of prayer. Religious in- 
struction is given on Sundays, through addresses by 
the President of the College or by a specially invited 
layman, the single endeavor being to inculcate moral 
and religious sentiments, distinct from sectarian tenets. 







"WHEN WINTER REIGNS." 

The chapel contains a beautiful memorial window to a 
former College President, William H. Allen, LL. D., 
presented by graduates of the College, 

A bathing pool in the western portion of the grounds 
affords amusement to the pupils in summer and oppor- 
tunity both for swimming and skating, instruction in 



j y 2 APPENDIX. 

which is provided. It also supplies ice to fill the ad 
jacent ice-house, while a well sixteen feet in diameter, 
the water from which is forced by means of a steam 
engine into four iron tanks or reservoirs, provides the 
water used in the Institution. The out buildings are 
heated by steam, • furnished by pipes carried through 
tunnels from a boiler-house in the rear of Building No. 
5, and the Institution is supplied with gas from the city 
works, as well as provided with facilities for electric 
lighting, the current being furnished by dynamos on the 
premises. Seven electric light towers, each one hun- 
dred and twenty-five feet high, surmounted by six arc 
lamps of one thousand two hundred candle-power 
apiece, serve to illuminate the grounds after night-fall, 
and pursuant to the directions of Girard's will 
the entire Institution is surrounded by a wall 
sixteen inches in thickness and ten feet in height, 
strengthened by spur piers on the inside and capped 
with marble coping, the length of which is six thou- 
sand eight hundred and forty-three feet, or some- 
what more than one and one-quarter miles. This 
wall is pierced on the southern side, immediately 
facing the south front of the main building, for 
the chief entrance, this last being flanked by two oc- 
tagonal white marble lodges, between which stretches 
an ornamental wrought-iron grille ', with wrought-iron 
gates, the whole forming an approach in keeping with 






APPENDIX. I7 ^ 

the large simplicity of the College itself. 

The site upon which this latter is erected corres- 
ponds well with its splendor and importance. It is 
elevated considerably above the general level of the 
surrounding buildings, and forms a conspicuous 
object, not only from the higher windows and roofs 
in every part of Philadelphia, but from the Delaware 
River many miles below the city, and from eminences 
far out in the country. From the lofty marble roof 
the view is also exceedingly beautiful, embracing the 
city and its environs for many miles around, and the 
course, to their confluence, eight miles below, of both 
those noble rivers which enclose the Quaker City. 

The history of the Institution commences shortly 
after the decease of Girard, when the Councils of 
Philadelphia, acting as his trustees, elected a Board of 
Directors, which organized on the 18th of February, 
l %3 3> with Nicholas Biddle as Chairman. A Building 
Committee was also appointed by the City Councils on 
the 2 1st of the following March, in whom was vested 
the immediate supervision of the construction of the 
College, an office in which they continued without in- 
termission until the final completion of the structure. 

On the 19th of July, 1836, the former body, having 
previously been authorized by the Councils so to do, 
proceeded to elect Alexander Dallas Bache President 
of the College, and instructed the latter to visit 



j j* APPENDIX. 

various similar institutions in Europe, purchasing the 
necessary books and apparatus for the school, both of 
which he did, making an exhaustive report upon his 
return in 1838. It was then attempted to establish 
schools without awaiting the completion of the main 
building, but competent legal advice being unfavorable 
to the organization of the Institution prior to that 
time, the idea was surrendered, and difficulties having 
meanwhile arisen between the Councils and the Board 
of Directors, the ordinances creating the Board and 
authorizing the election of the President were re- 
pealed. 

In June, 1847, a new Board was appointed, to whom 
the buildings were transferred, and on December 15th, 
1847, the officers of the Institution were elected, the 
Hon. Joel Jones, President Judge of the District 
Court for the City and County of Philadelphia, being 
chosen as President. On January 1st, 1848, the Col- 
lege was opened with a class of one hundred orphans, 
previously admitted, the occasion being signalized by 
appropriate ceremonies. On October 1st of the same 
year one hundred more were admitted, and on April 
1st, 1849, an additional one hundred, since when 
others have been admitted as vacancies have occurred, 
or to swell the number as facilities have increased. 
The College now (1892) contains about eighteen 
hundred pupils. 



H 
X 

pi 

o 

> 
•z 

o 

in 

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2 
g 

Q 

O 

o 
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APPENDIX. j j c 

On June ist, 1849, Judge Jones resigned the office 
of President of the College, and on the 23d of the 
following November William H. Allen, LL. D., Pro- 
fessor of Mental Philosophy and English Literature in 
Dickinson College, was elected to fill the vacancy. 
He was installed January ist, 1850, but resigned 
December ist, 1862, and Major Richard Somers 
Smith was recalled from active service in the United 
States Army to fill his place. Major Smith was 
inaugurated June 24th, 1863, and resigned in Septem- 
ber, 1867, Dr. Allen being immediately re-elected and 
continuing in office until his death, on the 29th of 
August, 1882. 

The present incumbent, A. H. Fetterolf, Ph. D. 
(Lafayette), under whose care the census of the pupils 
has increased from about nine hundred to nearly double 
that number, was elected December 27th, 1882, by the 
Board of Directors, the members of which body are 
no longer elected by the Councils, but appointed by 
the Judges of the Courts of Common Pleas of the 
City of Philadelphia. The Board has a membership 
of fifteen, twelve of whom are appointed for life, the 
number being completed by three Directors ex-officio, 
viz. : The Mayor of the city of Philadelphia and the 
respective Presidents of the Select and Common 
Councils. Its meetings are held on the second Wed- 
nesday of each month. 



I7 g APPENDIX. 

It has boon determined by the Courts of Pennsyl- 
vania that any child having lost its father is property 
denominated an orphan, irrespective of whether the 
mother be living or not. 1 This construction has 
been adopted by the College, the requirements for 

admission to the Institution being as follows: (i) The 
orphan must be a u poor white male," between six and 
ten years o( age, no application lor admission being 
received before the former age, nor can lie be 
admitted into the College after passing his tenth 
birthday, even though the application has been 
made previously; (j) the mother or next friend is 
required to produce the marriage certificate of the 
child's parents (or, in its absence, some other satis- 
factory evidence), and also the certificate of the 
physician setting forth the time and place of birth, 
and which must state the name of the orphan ; 
(3) a form of application looking to the establish- 
ment of the child's identity, physical condition, 
morals, previous education, and means of support, 
must be filled in, signed, ami vouched for by two 
respectable citizens. Personal applications may be 
made any day, except Sunday, at the office, No. 
iq South Twelfth Street, Philadelphia, between the 
hours oi~ nine and twelve A. m., though where the 
applicant resides at such a distance from Philadelphia 
LSoohan w, Philadelphia, reported in 1 Grant's dses 505, and in Casey 20. 



APPENDIX. 177 

as to make personal presence impracticable, a blank- 
form is furnished, the statements made in which must 
be verified by affidavit before a judge or magistrate of 

the county of residence. 

A preference is given under Girard's will to (a) 
orphans born in the city of Philadelphia; (//) those 
born in any other part of Pennsylvania; (r) those 
born in the city of New York ; (d) those born in the 
city of New Orleans. The preference to the orphans 
born in the city of Philadelphia is defined to be 
strictly limited to the old city proper, the districts 
subsequently consolidated into the city haviftg no 
rights in this respect over any other portion of the 
State. 

Orphans are admitted, in the above order, strictly 
according to priority of application, provided the 
orphan has not become ten years of age while await- 
ing admission, the mother executing an indenture 
binding the orphan until twenty-one years of age to 
the city of Philadelphia, Trustee under Girard's will, 
as an orphan to be educated and provided for by the 
College. Food, clothing, and instruction are provided 
wholly by the Institution. Each orphan has three 
suits of clothing, one for every-day use, one somewhat 
better, worn when visiting home, and a "best suit/' 
usually reserved for Sundays. All clothing and un- 
derclothing is kept in order by seamstresses at the 



jyg APPENDIX. 

College. No distinctive dress is ever to be worn ; and 
although the orphans reside permanently in the Col- 
lege, they are, at stated times, allowed to visit friends 
at the latter's houses and to receive visits from their 
friends at the College. The household is under the 
care of a matron, an assistant matron, sixteen prefects, 
and twenty-four governesses, who superintend the 
moral and social training of the orphans and admin- 
ister the discipline of the Institution when the scholars 
are not in the school-rooms ; this discipline consists 
almost entirely of admonition and deprivation of 
privileges, although in extreme cases corporal punish- 
ment may be inflicted by order of the President and 
in his presence. Under Girard's will the right to 
summarily dismiss a pupil who is found to be an unfit 
companion for the rest is vested in the Board of Direc- 
tors. Slight offenses or derelictions are punished by 
" keeping in " after school in the section rooms twenty 
minutes for each demerit mark. The pupils are di- 
vided into sections for convenience of government, 
which sections have distinct officers, buildings, and 
ample playgrounds. Among the smaller boys forty 
and among the larger seventy pupils constitute a " sec- 
tion." A limited number of the pupils receive weekly 
instruction in the manual of arms, and reviews and 
parades are held on the Drill Ground in the rear of 
the main College structure every Friday afternoon at 






J 



AFFENDJX. jyg 

four p. m., to which visitors arc admitted, the College 
Band and Drum Corps furnishing the music upon 
these occasions. 

The schools are conducted principally, though, as 
has been indicated, not entirely, in the main College 
building, five professors and fifty-nine teachers being 
employed in the duties of instruction, and the course 
comprises a thorough English commercial education, 
to which are added the special courses of technical 
instruction in mechanical arts. Since a large propor- 
tion of the orphans admitted into the College have 
had little or no preparatory education, the instruction 
commences with the alphabet, and includes during 
the first year, spelling, reading, writing, drawing (on 
slates), primary arithmetic, and object lessons. 

The order of daily exercises is as follows : The 
pupils rise at six o'clock, take breakfast at half-past 
six. Recreation until half-past seven ; then assemble 
in the section rooms at that hour, and proceed to the 
Chapel for morning worship at eight. The Chapel 
exercises consist of singing a hymn, reading a chapter 
from the Old or New Testament, and prayer, after the 
conclusion of which the pupils proceed to the various 
school-rooms, where they remain, with a recess of 
fifteen minutes, until twelve. From twelve until the 
dinner-hour, which is half-past twelve, they are on the 
playground, returning there after finishing that meal, 



i8o 



APPENDIX. 



until two o'clock, the afternoon school-hour, when 
they resume the school exercises, remaining, without 
intermission, until four o'clock. At four the afternoon 
service in the Chapel is held, after which they are on 
the playground until six, at which hour supper is 

served. The evening 
study hour lasts from 
seven to eight,or half- 
| past eight, varying 
with the age of the 
I pupils, the same dif- 
ference being ob- 
served in their bed- 
times, which are from 
half-past seven for 
the youngest until 
a quarter before nine. 
On Sunday the 
pupils assemble in 
their section rooms 
at nine o'clock in 
the morning, and at 
two in the afternoon for religious reading and instruc- 
tion, and at half-past ten o'clock in the morning, and 
at three in the afternoon, they attend Divine worship 
in the Chapel, the exercises being strictly non-sectarian 
in character. 




AD HONOREM DEI. 



APPENDIX. l8l 

A commemorative tablet has recently been erected 
in the Chapel by Mrs. Ellen E. Girard, a granddaugh- 
ter of Stephen's brother Jean. This memorial bears 
the following inscription : 

In Commemoration 

Of the Courage and Humanity displayed by 

Stephen Girard 

During the Epidemic of Yellow Fever 

Prevailing in Philadelphia in the year 

1793- 

His Heroism 

In that Eventful Period of Plague 

Is an Example of Public Spirit and Chanty 

Most worthy the Emulation of his Fellow Citizens. - 

When there was no one to come to the rescue 

He volunteered his services 

In the noble task of nursing 

The fever stricken victims 

In the City Hospital. 

This courageous conduct 

Demands more than a " Resolution of Thanks." 

Such magnanimity merits 

Admiration and Honor 

From the citizens of Philadelphia 

Forevermore. 

MDCCCXCV. 

There is a College vacation of two months in the 
summer, during which time scholars are permitted to 



1 82 APPENDIX. 

visit relatives and friends, provided two weeks of this 
time is passed in the country. Those who remain at 
the College during vacation are taken upon various 
excursions by the officers and matrons, and are not 
required to study, even when on the College grounds, 
being permitted to amuse themselves at discretion. 

Two other holidays are observed at the College — 
the quarterly " Mothers' Day," upon the first Tuesday 
in every third month ; and, most important, the anni- 
versary of the birth of Girard, on the 20th of May, at 
w T hich latter time a general reassembling of graduates 
from all parts of the country takes place, games 
are played, the cadets parade, and the celebra- 
tion reaches a climax in the ample and excellent 
dinner provided for both scholars and invited guests. 

The annual cost per capita of maintaining, clothing, 
and educating each pupil, including current repairs to 
buildings and furniture and the maintenance of 
the grounds, is about three hundred and twelve dollars, 
and those scholars who merit it remain in the College 
until between fourteen and eighteen years of age, at 
the discretion of the Board. Between these ages they 
are indentured by the Institution, on behalf of " The 
City of Philadelphia," to learn some " art, trade, or 
mystery," until their twenty-first year, consulting, as 
far as is judicious, the inclination and preference of 
the scholar. The master to whom an apprentice is 



APPENDIX. 183 

bound agrees to furnish the latter with sufficient meat, 
drink, apparel, washing, and lodging at his own place 
of residence (unless otherwise agreed to by the parties 
to the indenture and so indorsed upon it) ; to use his 
best endeavors to teach and instruct the apprentice in 
his " art, trade, or mystery," and at the expiration of 
the apprenticeship to furnish him with at least two 
complete suits of clothes, one of which shall be new. 
Scholars not dismissed receive an outfit upon leaving 
the College, consisting of a trunk, with clothing and 
books to the approximate value of seventy-five dol- 
lars. After indenture the apprentice is occasionally 
visited by an officer of the College to see that he is 
being properly cared for and instructed, and should this 
not prove to be the case, the apprentice is taken back 
to the College. The pupils cannot remain in the Col- 
lege after attaining the age of eighteen years, however, 
in any event, and in case of death friends have the 
privilege of removing the body for interment at the 
cost of the College, though should this not be 
preferred, it is interred in the College burial-lot 
at Laurel Hill Cemetery, near Philadelphia. It may 
be stated that the mortality among the scholars has 
always been remarkably small. 

Citizens and strangers provided with a permit 
are allowed to visit the College on the afternoon of 
every weekday. Permits can be obtained from the 
Mayor of Philadelphia, at his office, in the City 



1 84 APPENDIX. 

Hall, Broad and Market Streets, Philadelphia; 
from a Director ; at the office of the Board of City 
Trusts, No. 19 South Twelfth Street, Philadelphia; or 
at the office of the Public Ledger newspaper, on 
the southwest corner of Sixth and Chestnut Streets, 
Philadelphia. It is to be observed, however, that the 
passes obtained from the Public Ledger office will not 
admit visitors on Fridays, that being the " Battalion 
drill day," and it having been found that the central 
position of the Ledger office was likely to result in 
the issuance of so many passes for that day as 
to seriously interfere with the exercises. Especial 
courtesy is shown all foreign visitors, and particularly 
to those interested in educational matters, in whose 
tavor the rigidity of the above rules is invariably 
relaxed upon proper application either to a Director 
or to the President of the College, who is always ac- 
cessible at his office in the College buildings. 




Extracts from the Will of Stephen Girard re- 
lating to the College and its Administration. 



Twentieth. — And whereas, I have been for a long time 
impressed with the importance of educating the poor, and of 
placing them, by the early cultivation of their minds and the 
development of their moral principles, above the many tempta- 
tions to which, through poverty and ignorance, they are exposed ; 
and I am particularly desirous to provide for such a number of 
poor male white orphan children as can be trained in one insti- 
tution, a better education, as well as a more comfortable main- 
tenance than they usually receive from the application of the 
public funds ; And whereas, together with the object just ad- 
verted to, I have sincerely at heart the welfare of the City of 
Philadelphia, and, as a part of it, am desirous to improve the 
neighborhood of the river Delaware, so that the health of the 
citizens may be promoted and preserved, and that the eastern 
part of the city may be made to correspond better with the 
interior: Now, I do devise and bequeath all the residue and 
remainder of my real and personal estate of every sort and kind 
wheresoever situate (the real estate in Pennsylvania charged as 
aforesaid), unto " Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of Phila- 
delphia," their successors and assigns, in trust, to and for the 
several uses, intents and purposes hereinafter mentioned and 
declared of and concerning the same, that is to say : So far as 
regards my real estate in Pennsylvania, in trust, that no part 
thereof shall ever be sold or alienated by the said Mayor, Alder- 

185 



1 86 APPENDIX. 

men and Citizens of Philadelphia, or their successors, but the 
same shall forever thereafter be let from time to time to good 
tenants, at yearly or other rents, and upon leases in possession 
not exceeding five years from the commencement thereof, and 
that the rents, issues, and profits arising therefrom shall be 
applied toward keeping that part of the said real estate situate 
in the City and Liberties of Philadelphia constantly in good 
repair (parts elsewhere situate to be kept in repair by the tenants 
thereof respectively), and towards improving the same, when- 
ever necessary, by erecting new buildings, and that the net 
residue (after paying the several annuities hereinbefore provided 
for) be applied to the same uses and purposes as are herein de- 
clared of and concerning the residue of my personal estate. 
And so far as regards my real estate in Kentucky, now under 
the care of Messrs. Triplett and Barmley, in trust, to sell and 
dispose of the same, whenever it may be expedient to do so, and 
to apply the proceeds of such sale to the same uses and purposes 
as are herein declared of and concerning the residue of my per- 
sonal estate. 

Twenty-first. — And so far as regards the residue of my per- 
sonal estate, in trust, as to Two Millions of Dollars, part thereof 
to apply and expend so much of that sum as may be necessary 
in erecting, as soon as practicably may be, in the centre of my 
square of ground between High (Market) and Chestnut streets, 
and Eleventh and Twelfth streets, in the City of Philadelphia 
(which square of ground I hereby devote for the purposes here- 
inafter stated, and for no other forever), a Permanent College 
with suitable outbuildings, sufficiently spacious for the residence 
and accommodation of at least three hundred scholars, and the 
requisite teachers and other persons necessary in such an institu- 
tion as I direct to be established ; and in supplying the said Col- 
lege and outbuildings with decent and suitable furniture, as well 
as books and all things needful to carry into effect my general 
design. . . . 






APPENDIX. 187 

The Testator here adverts in minute detail to the 
architectural construction of the College, adding : 

In minute particulars, not here mentioned, utility and good 
taste should determine. There should be at least four outbuild- 
ings detached from the main edifice, and from each other, and 
in such positions as shall at once answer the purposes of the 
institution, and be consistent with the symmetry of the whole 
establishment. Each building should be, as far as practicable, 
devoted to a distinct purpose ; in the one or more of those build- 
ings, in which they may be most useful, I direct my executors 
to place my plate and furniture of every sort. 

The entire square, formed by High and Chestnut streets, and 
Eleventh and Twelfth streets, shall be enclosed with a solid 
wall, at least fourteen inches thick and ten feet high, capped 
with marble and guarded with irons on the top, so as to prevent 
persons from getting over ; there shall be two places of entrance 
into the square : one in the centre of the wall facing High street ; 
at each place of entrance there shall be two gates, one opening 
inward, and the other outward ; those opening inward to be of 
iron, and in the style of those gates north and south of my bank- 
ing house; and those opening outward to be of substantial wood- 
work well lined and secured on the faces thereof with sheet iron. 
The messuages now erected on the southeast corner of High and 
Twelfth streets, and on Twelfth street, to be taken down and 
removed as soon as the College and outbuildings shall have 
been erected, so that the establishment may be rendered secure 
and private. 

When the College and appurtenances shall have been con- 
structed, and supplied with plain and suitable furniture and 
books, philosophical and experimental instruments and appa- 
ratus, and all other matters needful to carry my general design 
into execution, the income, issues and profits of so much of 
the said sum of two millions of dollars as shall remain unex- 



1 88 APPENDIX. 

pended, shall be applied to maintain the said College according 
to my directions. 

First. — The institution shall be organized as soon as prac- 
ticable, and to accomplish that purpose more effectually, due 
public notice of the intended opening of the College shall be 
given — so that there may be an opportunity to make selections 
of competent instructors, and other agents, and those who may 
have the charge of orphans, may be aware of the provisions 
intended for them. 

Second. — A competent number of instructors, teachers, assist- 
ants, and other necessary agents, shall be selected, and when 
needful, their places from time to time supplied : they shall re- 
ceive adequate compensation for their services ; but no person 
shall be employed who shall not be of tried skill in his or her 
proper department, of established moral character, and in all 
cases persons shall be chosen on account of their merit, and not 
through favor or intrigue. 

Third. — As many poor white male orphans, between the ages 
of six and ten years, as the said income shall be adequate to 
maintain, shall be introduced into the College as soon as pos- 
sible ; and from time to time as there may be vacancies, or as 
increased ability from income may warrant, others shall be in- 
troduced. 

Fourth. — On the application for admission, an accurate state- 
ment shall be taken, in a book prepared for the purpose, of the 
name, birth-place, age, health, condition as to relatives, and other 
particulars useful to be known of each orphan. 

Fifth. — No orphan should be admitted until the guardians or 
directors of the poor, or a proper guardian or other competent 
authority, shall have given, by indenture, relinquishment, or 
otherwise, adequate power to the Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens 
or Philadelphia, or to directors, or others by them appointed, to 
enforce, in relation to each orphan, every proper restraint, and 



APPENDIX. 1 89 

to prevent relatives or others from interfering with, or withdraw- 
ing such orphans from the institution. 

Sixth. — Those orphans for whose admission application shall 
first be made, shall be first introduced, all other things concur- 
ring — and at all future times, priority of application shall entitle 
the applicant to preference in admission, all other things con- 
curring ; but if there shall be at any time more applicants than 
vacancies, and .the applying orphans shall have been born in 
different places, a preference shall be given — First, to orphans 
born in the City of Philadelphia ; Secondly, to those born in any 
other part of Pennsylvania ; Thirdly, to those born in the City 
of New York (that being the first port on the continent of North 
America at which I arrived) ; and lastly, to those born in the 
City of New Orleans (being the first port of said continent at 
which I first traded, in the first instance as first officer, and sub- 
sequently as master and part owner of a vessel and cargo). 

Seventh. — The orphans admitted into the College, shall be 
there fed with plain but wholesome food, clothed with plain but 
decent apparel (no distinctive dress ever to be worn), and lodged 
in a plain but safe manner. • Due regard shall be paid to their 
health, and to this end their persons and clothes shall be kept 
clean, and they shall have suitable and rational exercise and 
recreation. They shall be instructed in the various branches 
of a sound education, comprehending reading, writing, grammar, 
arithmetic, geography, navigation, surveying, practical math- 
ematics, astronomy, natural, chemical and experimental phil- 
osophy, the French and Spanish languages (I do not forbid, but 
I do not recommend, the Greek and Latin languages) — and such 
other learning and science as the capacities of the several 
scholars may merit or warrant. I would have them taught facts 
and things, rather than words or signs. And especially, I desire, 
that by every proper means a pure attachment to our republican 
institutions, and to the sacred rights of conscience, as guaranteed 



1 90 APPENDIX. 

by our happy constitutions, shall be formed and fostered in the 
minds of the scholars. J 

Eighth.— Should it unfortunately happen, that any of the 
orphans, admitted into the College shall from malconduct, have 
become unfit companions for the rest, and mild means of refor- 
mation prove abortive, they should no longer remain therein. 

Ninth. — Those scholars who shall merit it, shall remain in the 
College until they shall respectively arrive at between fourteen 
and eighteen years of age ; they shall then be bound out by the 
Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of Philadelphia, or under their 
direction, to suitable occupations, as those of agriculture, navi- 
gation, arts, mechanical trades, and manufactures, according to 
the capacities and acquirements of the scholars respectively, 
consulting, as far as prudence shall justify it, the inclinations of 
the several scholars, as to the occupation, art, or trade, to be 
learned. 

In relation to the organization of the College and its appen- 
dages, I leave, necessarily, many details to the Mayor, Alder- 
men, and Citizens of Philadelphia, and their successors; and 
I do so, with the more confidence, as, from the nature of my 
bequests, and the benefit to result from them, I trust that my 
fellow-citizens of Philadelphia will observe and evince especial 
care and anxiety in selecting members for their City Councils, 
and other agents. 

There are, however, some restrictions which I consider it my 
duty to prescribe, and to be, amongst others, conditions on 
which my bequest for said College is made and to be enjoyed, 
namely : First, I enjoin and require, that if, at the close of any 
year, the income of the fund devoted to the purposes of the 
said College shall be more than sufficient for the maintenance 
of the institution during that year, then the balance of the said 
income, after defraying such maintenance, shall be forthwith 
invested in good securities, thereafter to be and remain a part 
of the capital ; but, in no event, shall any part of the said 



APPENDIX. 



I 9 I 



capital be sold, disposed of, or pledged, to meet the current 
expenses of the said institution, to which I devote the interest, 
income, and dividends thereof, exclusively : Secondly, I enjoin 
and require that no ecclesiastic, missionary, or minister of any 
sect whatsoever, shall ever hold or exercise any station or duty 
whatever in the said College ; nor shall any such person ever be 
ad7nitted for any purpose, or as a visitor, within the premises 
appropriated to the purposes of the said College. In making 
this restriction, I do not mean to cast any reflection upon any 
sect or person whatsoever ; but, as there is such a multitude of 
sects, and such a diversity of opinion amongst them, I desire 
to keep the tender minds of the orphans, who are to derive 
advantage from this bequest, free from the excitement which 
clashing doctrines and sectarian controversy are so apt to pro- 
duce : My desire is, that all the instructors and teachers in the 
College shall take pains to instill into the minds of the scholars 
the purest principles of morality, so that, on their entrance into 
active life, they may from inclination and habit evince benev- 
olence towards their fellow creatures, and a love of truth, sobriety, 
and industry, adopting at the same time such religious tenets as 
their matured reason may enable them to prefer, y 

If the income arising from that part of the said sum of two 
millions of dollars, remaining after the construction and fur- 
nishing of the College and outbuildings, shall, owing to the 
increase of the number of orphans applying for admission or 
other cause, be inadequate to the construction of new build- 
ings, or the maintenance and education of as many orphans as 
may apply for admission, then such further sum as may be 
necessary for the construction of new buildings, and the main- 
tenance and education of such further number of orphans, as can 
be maintained and instructed within such buildings as the said 
square of ground will be adequate to, shall be taken from the 
final residuary fund, hereinafter expressly referred to for the pur- 
pose, comprehending the income of my real estate in the City 



I92 APPENDIX. 

and County of Philadelphia, and the dividends of my stock in 
the Schuylkill Navigation Company — my design and desire being, 
that the benefits of said institution shall be extended to as great 
a number of orphans as the limits of the said square and build- 
ings therein can accommodate. 

Sixteen months later the Testator added the follow- 
ing codicil to his will, changing the site of the intended 
College : 

Whereas I, Stephen Girard, the Testator, named in the fore- 
going Will and Testament, dated February 16, 1830, have, since 
the execution thereof, purchased several parcels and pieces of 
land and real estate, and have built sundry messuages, all which, 
as well as any real estate that I may hereafter purchase, it is my 
intention to pass by said Will. And whereas, in particular, I 
have recently purchased from William Parker the Mansion 
House, outbuildings, and forty-five acres and some perches of 
land, called Peel Hall, on the Ridge Road, in Penn Township ; 
Now, I declare it to be my intention, and I direct that the orphan 
establishment, provided for in my said Will, instead of being 
built as therein directed upon my square of ground between 
High and Chestnut and Eleventh and Twelfth streets, in the 
City of Philadelphia, shall be built upon the estate so purchased 
from Mr. W. Parker, and I hereby devote the said estate to that 
purpose, exclusively, in the same manner as I have devoted the 
said square, hereby directing that all the improvements and ar- 
rangements for the said orphan establishment prescribed by my 
said Will as to said square shall be made and executed upon the 
said estate, just as if I had in my Will devoted the said estate to 
said purpose — consequently, the said square of ground is to con- 
stitute, and I declare it to be a part of the residue and remainder 
of my real and personal estate, and given and devised for the 
same uses and purposes as are declared in section twenty, of my 



APPENDIX. 



I 93 



Will, it being my intention that the said square of ground shall 
be built upon and improved in such a manner as to secure a safe 
and permanent income for the purposes stated in said twentieth 
section. In witness whereof, I, the said Stephen Girard, set my 
hand and seal hereunto, the twentieth day of June, eighteen 
hundred and thirty-one. 

STEPHEN GIRARD. [seal.] 




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